Infernal Violins, Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns and Death!

Ever since we watched episode 5 of Grimm on NBC, "Danse Macabre," the music has been echoing through John's head. He has a strong knowledge of classical, mostly from tuba playing, but didn't know much about this one, so I went researching to see if his educated guesses were correct--he predicted the decade of composition and country of origin (although the name strongly hints at that one). Fun husband! It's a common roadtrip game with us--I can pick almost anything on my 80GB iPod and see how long it takes for him to identify it.

First of all, I already had two versions on my iTunes which lead us to reexploring a fascinating collection I have, Infernal Violins by Angele Dubeau & La Pieta. Highly recommended and not at all December holiday spirited, but if you, too, have Danse Macabre haunting you, check this out. Yes, it's a collection of music inspired by the Devil. But it's not nearly as "evil" as that sounds, after all, most of these are folklore devils which tend to be much more sympathetic and the equivalent of "Death" than many religious outright evil ones. And the music is invigorating but not as dark as one would guess--not Wagnerian as one would assume, that is. Most of it is straight classical although there is a fun classical mash-up of Paint It Black and Sympathy for the Devil on it, too.

Anyway, courtesy of Wikipedia, some highlights about Danse Macabre, too:

Danse macabre, Op. 40, is a tone poem for orchestra, written in 1874 by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. It started out in 1872 as an art song for voice and piano with a French text by the poet Henri Cazalis, which is based in an old French superstition. In 1874, the composer expanded and reworked the piece into a tone poem, replacing the vocal line with a solo violin.

According to legend, "Death" appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death calls forth the dead from their graves to dance their dance of death for him while he plays his fiddle (here represented by a solo violin). His skeletons dance for him until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.

And the vocal lines, translated into English:

Zig, zig, zig, Death in cadence,
Striking a tomb with his heel,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,
Zig, zig, zag, on his violin.
The winter wind blows, and the night is dark;
Moans are heard in the linden trees.
White skeletons pass through the gloom,
Running and leaping in their shrouds.
Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking,
You can hear the cracking of the bones of the dancers.
A lustful couple sits on the moss
So as to taste long lost delights.
Zig zig, zig, Death continues
The unending scraping on his instrument.
A veil has fallen! The dancer is naked.
Her partner grasps her amorously.
The lady, it's said, is a marchioness or baroness
And her green gallant, a poor cartwright.
Horror! Look how she gives herself to him,
Like the rustic was a baron.
Zig, zig, zig. What a saraband!
They all hold hands and dance in circles.
Zig, zig, zag. You can see in the crowd
The king dancing among the peasants.
But hist! All of a sudden, they leave the dance,
They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed.
Oh what a beautiful night for the poor world!
Long live death and equality!

And, so, some Death inspired music for this December Monday! Thanks, Grimm!

Ritemail Picdump — 68 Pics

 

Ritemail Picdump — 66 more images after the break...

What Breed and Mustache Say About You

16 Circle Beard

What This Says About You: That you like the idea of having facial hair, but you’re not really willing to commit completely to the idea. You’re fairly middle of the road, probably pretty boring and there’s a good chance you at least dabble with the acoustic guitar.

Typical Quote: “Kurt Cobain was just so, like, you know, wounded. Say, why don’t you take off your shirt while we rap some more?”

Experimentation is a part of becoming a man. I mean haven’t you ever wondered what it would feel like to have those coarse wiry hairs dangling all over your lips or to have that ultimate symbol of manliness spread all over your face, keeping you warm during those cold, cold nights? Yes, growing a beard is a rite of passage for every man. Wait… what did you think I was talking about? But you should all know that whenever you decide to experiment with facial hair you are making a statement to the world, whether you realize it or not. And because we care about you and what you choose to spread all over your face, we here at Guyism have decided to give you all a helping hand on your road to manhood (Not that kind of hand. Not this time, anyway…) with this helpful guide, which explains what these 16 different types of facial hair say about you. 15 more after the break...

Continue Reading.......

Call for Papers: Cinderella Conference in Rome

Okay, this is one I really want to attend. Especially after slaving over Cinderella Tales From Around the World the last few years, which will be coming out soon. But on to the real topic of this post:

CFP: Cinderella Conference in Rome

Cinderella as a Text of Culture

International Conference

University of Rome, “La Sapienza”

November, 8-10th 2012

Cinderella is one of the most beloved and well-known tales in Western culture. Invariably popular among the audience of children and adults alike, translated, adapted and reinvented in sometimes dramatically different versions, the story of Cinderella has been told again and again, in literature, music, theatre, film and other arts. It has also been the object of extensive scholarly research, beginning with Marian Roalfe Cox’s pioneering compendium compiled in the nineteenth century. Folklorists have recognized hundreds of distinct forms of Cinderella-related plots and subtypes throughout the Western World, and they have analysed the form and typology of the tale, as well as its development through time. Many methodological approaches have been applied to Cinderella, such as ritual, structural, anthropological, sociological and, more recently, feminist interpretations, alongside the influential psychoanalytical account of the significance of the tale in Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment.

However while mainstream research tends to emphasise the universal values and meanings of the tale, we would like to propose a different approach by considering Cinderella in its textual nature in relation to a given geo-cultural, historical, literary and mediatic ec(h)o-system. We are particularly interested in contributions that focus on Cinderella neither as an item of folklore nor as a universal story, but rather on the many Cinderellas that have populated Western culture past and present, and in different cultural and national areas. In order to investigate these phenomena, we invite you to discuss Cinderella’s various textual metamorphoses and account for significant differences in their textual, iconographic and mediatic realisations.

Topics and questions that may be addressed include: Giambattista Basile – Charles Perrault – Grimm brothers: textual interconnections and interactions;

Grimm’s Aschenputtel versus Perrault’s Cendrillon as literary texts: affinities and differences, reception and legacy;

What is the status of Cinderella among other fairy tales? How can we account for its particular appeal? Is it somehow different from other, or similar, rise- or restoration tales?

Travelling stories and intercultural canon formation: to what extent is Cinderella a “canonical” fairy tale? Is there an international fairy tale canon?

Translatio / translation

The circulation of the tale in European culture: audience typologies and reception, manipulation and ideology, cultural translatio;

Domestication: national identity and “nationalisations” of Cinderella vs. intercultural communication through fairy tale adaptations;

Iconological and imagological interpretations of Cinderella: diachronic and synchronic aspects of the tale’s visual representations;

The literary canon and medial adaptations (Cinema, Theatre, Music, etc.);

The colloquium is international in scope and attendance. The official conference languages will be English and Italian.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Ruth Bottigheimer (Stony Brook University)

Andrea Andermann (director and producer, Rada Film-RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana)

The conference is hosted by the University of Roma “La Sapienza” Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies

Organization
Scientific Committee

- Francesca Bernardini (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)

- Johanna Borek (University of Wien)

- Ruth Bottigheimer (Stony Brook University)

- Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère (University of Lausanne)

- Vanessa Joosen (University of Antwerp)

- Gillian Lathey (Roehampton University, London)

- Jan Van Coillie (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel)

- Monika Wozniak (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)

Local Organizing Committee
Camilla Miglio, Martine van Geetruyden, Monika Wozniak (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)
Deadlines
February 28th, 2012
Deadline for the proposal of conference papers, with the submission of a 300-400 word abstract (in English) and a short bionote including the following information:
1. Postal address
2. E-mail address
3. Academic affiliation
The abstracts should be sent to the following e-mail address: cinderella.roma2012 (at) gmail.com

Enquiries

Monika Wozniak monika.wozniak (at) uniroma1.it
or
Camilla Miglio camilla.miglio (at) uniroma1.it

Web page: http://www.cinderellaroma2012.wordpress.com/

March 30th, 2012

The notification of admission will be sent to participants.

Celebrity Upside Down

Celebrity upside down — Photoshop, 24 more images after the break...

Beauty and the Beast by the Northern Ballet

Northern Ballet has a new ballet production of Beauty and the Beast. I came across some press and foudn the ballet's website where these beautiful images were posted. Lovely. Wish I could see it! The images feature Martha Leebolt as Beauty with Ashley Dixon as the Beast. Photos by Jason Tozer.

From Traditional fairytale becomes ballet with a modern twist:

“I always go back to tales before Disney to find out where the stories come from. There are some wonderful Arabian versions of Beauty and the Beast that are quite dark but have a clear message. One version that inspired me years ago was the Cocteau movie which is wonderful, but that’s more for adults and I wanted to do something different,” says Nixon.

He wanted to give this classic fairytale a contemporary feel. “I was interested in how these ideas could apply to the world today. So the opening sequence looks like Made in Chelsea, or one of those reality TV shows, as well as a bit of a 50s look. It’s about how you look and being cool and yet into that I bring these fairies and sprites and goblins that everyone recognises from the story,” he says. “I wanted to use this idea of retail therapy and haute couture, so you see the girls coming home from their shopping trip with stacks of boxes and giant receipts and this led me to bring into the story this whole idea of debt. The father can’t pay these bills and the debt collectors come in from Gucci and they take the family home away and the family is left on the street.”

Advertising: Hummer and The Three Bears

I never saw this one when it was aired, but I have to admit it became one of my favorites as soon as I saw it. So true but still creative to the fairy tale. Poor baby bear....

I tried to learn more and discovered these credits at The Inspiration Room:

Credits
The Hummer Three Bears TV ad is another spot in the ongoing campaign managed by Boston advertising company Modernista! Staff involved in this spot included executive creative directors Lance Jensen and Gary Koepke, art director Tim Vaccarino, copywriter Joe Fallon, agency producer Julian Katz and executive producer Charles Wolford.

Director Jake Scott worked with executive producer David Mitchell at RSA Films, and director of photography Tobias Schliessler.

Editor was Kirk Baxter from Rock Paper Scissors. Colorist was Tim Masick at Company 3, New York.

Visual effects were developed by Geoff McAuliffe and Michel Suissa at Brickyard VFX.

Composers were Aaron Alden and Doug Darnell at Robot Repair. Audio engineer was Mike Secher at Soundtrack Boston.

Goldilocks was played by Sarah Jane Morris. Papa Bear was Robert Daly. Mama Bear was Lori Mellmon.