OPM icon Claire dela Fuente passes away at 62

by Robert Requintina, Manila Bulletin

OPM icon Claire dela Fuente passed away due to cardiac arrest this morning, March 30. She was 62.

Dela Fuente’s passing was confirmed by composer/producer Jonathan Manalo who is close to the family, according to a report by ABS-CBN.

Dela Fuente is the popular singer behind the immortal OPM songs “Sayang,” “Nakaw Na Pag-Ibig,” and “Minsan Minsan” in the 1980s.

During an exclusive interview in 2017, Dela Fuente said that she was thrilled to hear her songs on the radio on weekends. “Naririnig ko yan. Proud ako dahil ilang arttist ba ang may ganyan? Kokonti lang talaga kami.”

Dela Fuente also said that while her song “Sayang” is very popular, her biggest-selling record is “Minsan Minsan.”

“Yung ‘Minsan Minsan’ yun talaga ang nagconfirm sa akin sa stardom bilang sikat na singer,” she said.

Dela Fuente was discovered by noted composer George Canseco when she joined a singing contest at the age of 15. “Member ng board of judges si George nun sabi nya gusto mo bang kumanta sa commercial? Ako ang original voice sa Hope cigarettes commercial.”

When asked what she did with her first paycheck for her debut single “Sayang,” Dela Fuente said: “Naku ang liit lang nun! Ibinigay ko sa nanay ko pandagdag sa baon ko.” –

Sought to give advice to upcoming singers, Dela Fuente said: “Napakahirap kasi ngayon sa showbiz. If you want to succeed sa career, kailangan mo talagang mag-focus. At saka dapat alam mo ang sarili mo at realistic ka. Kung hindi ka naman ganun kagaling, paano? Kung hindi magaling, move on na. Sa ibang career na tayo pumunta. Ganun yun eh. Sa lahat ng bagay, pati sa negosyo, destiny rin ‘yan.”

In those days, Dela Fuente revealed she had cold war with rival singers Imelda Papin and Eva Eugenio.

“May iringan din kami nun. Mga bata pa kami nun syempre iba ang ugali namin. Pero ngayon, wala na yun. Nagkikita pa rin kaming tatlo,” she said.

7 of the best pieces of classical music for reading

7 of the best pieces of classical music for reading. Picture: Getty

By Daniel Ross, ClassicFM

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Reading with the right soundtrack is a fine art: which piece of classical music goes with your book?

Curling up with a great book and the perfect classical soundtrack: truly, can you name anything more enjoyable?

But choosing the right piece to accompany your literary experience is fraught with danger. Pick something obtrusive and well-known, and you risk losing focus. Pick something insufficiently active and you may as well not bother.

So here’s our list of perfect music to accompany your latest fireside read, all of it perfectly pitched to enhance your novelistic experience...

Read more: The 15 most famous tunes in classical music >

1. Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto

   If you’re grappling with the literary boom that brought us what became known as the ‘Great American Novel’, you’ll need a suitably Yank-inclined soundtrack to aid your reading.
   Whether it’s Fitzgerald or Baldwin or Bellow, it’s essential to listen to a piece which captures and crystallises an American state of mind.
   There are of countless examples, but Barber’s violin concerto is a true American great: grandstanding and slick, but deeply emotional in its slower passages, it’ll bring out the lyrical zip of the right novel.

2. Joseph Haydn: Symphonies

   Reading the classics? Need to feel the perfect mix of stately propriety and cheekiness to go with your subtly subversive comment on high society?
   Haydn’s status as a mere courtly composer does him a bit of a disservice, and likewise, the true impact of greats like Jane Austen wasn’t truly appreciated until much later. And paired together, it really works.

3. Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 (second movement)

   Taking in the complex and circulatory narratives of a classic crime thriller needs a contemplative soundtrack as you survey all the angles and try to work out whodunnit.
   Cycling through the suspects in an Agatha Christie vignette means evaluating the options over and over, and Beethoven’s cyclical, haunting and tense motif will help you mull over the motives.

4. Howard Shore: The Lord Of The Rings

   Absolute top tip: when you’re reading fantasy fiction – whether it’s George RR Martin or Ursula Le Guin – movie music can be distracting. But if you stick to the less hummable, more background-y bits of Shore’s mammoth compositions for Peter Jackson’s Tolkien movie adaptations, you’ll be surprised how immersive your reading experience becomes.
   Now, you might be tempted to go a step further in this direction and try Wagner’s Ring Cycle for some extra depth and intrigue for your fantastical jaunt, but we must advise caution: Wagner and books only makes for torn pages and weeping.

5. Gerald Finzi: Eclogue

   Almost imperceptibly melancholic, Finzi’s sweeping work is the perfect soundtrack to a winsome bit of nature writing.
   Deeply imbued with the bucolic soul of the English countryside, his Eclogue is just the thing if you’ve got some Robert MacFarlane or Laurie Lee nestling on your bedside table. You are about to have your mind very gently and wholesomely blown.

6. Arvo Pärt: Berlin Mass

   With his ‘tintinnabulation’ compositional technique to the fore, there is a hypnotic quality to Pärt’s Berlin Mass (Berliner Messe) which is suited to any book with an atmosphere to get lost in.
   A Shirley Jackson novella, perhaps some engrossing and otherworldly science fiction like Frank Herbert’s Dune, maybe even an unsettling work like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale: all of these will take on a different character with a soundtrack like this.

7. Franz Liszt: Liebestraum

   Take a novel with deep romantic themes and pair it with Liszt, the master of the romantic piano.
   Sigh along with his indelible melodies as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara fall (or fail to fall) into each other’s arms. Swoon as the aching right hand motifs draw you deeper into Love In The Time Of Cholera.
   Or just pop it on while you’re reading Jilly Cooper, we’re not here to judge.

Why are orchestras arranged the way they are?

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM

2K

How come the flutes are always hidden behind the violins? And why can’t the tubas sit right next to the conductor and soak up a bit of the orchestral limelight which is totally snapped up by the strings anyway?

When we think of the ‘traditional’ layout of an orchestra, we think of the violins directly to the left of the conductor and the violas in the centre, with the woodwind and then the percussion behind them. Then, the cellos and double basses are usually placed to the right of the conductor, with the brass section behind them.

Loud wind together at the back, quieter strings together at the front – seems logical, right? 

Well, until around 100 years ago, this format didn’t exist. In fact, the second violins used to be seated opposite the first violins, where the cellos normally are.

This seating plan helped support the ‘antiphonal’ – or conversational – effect in the strings, which 18th and 19th-century composers like Mozart, Elgar and Mahler often wrote into their music. Listen out for it in the finale to Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 ‘Jupiter’:

But then in the early-mid 20th century, Leopold Stokowski came along and changed the game. Best known for conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, Stokowski thought the previous layout didn’t provide the best sound projection, so he radically experimented with different seating plans.

“On one occasion, he horrified Philadelphians by placing the winds and brass in front of the strings,” says Courtney Lewis, music director of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. “The board was outraged, arguing that the winds ‘weren’t busy enough to put on a good show.’

“But in the 1920s he made one change that stuck: he arranged the strings from high to low, left to right, arguing that placing all the violins together helped the musicians to hear one another better. The ‘Stokowski Shift’, as it became known, was adopted by orchestras all over America.”

With regard to volume, it makes sense to put all the violins together at the front. An orchestra has 20 violins and two tubas because tubas are a lot louder than violins – so with the same logic, violins should also be put at the front so they can be heard.

There’s also something to be said for the visual beauty of putting violins at the front. The sweeping motion of twenty violin bows moving together in unison is rather pretty – and you could argue it would be a shame to change that.

But after years of watching pretty unified violins, is it time conductors channelled their inner Stokowski, and changed up the seating plan again? Then, perhaps, the tubas could finally enjoy some time in the spotlight.

Just don’t forget to bring your earplugs…

via GIPHY

That's Why Stradivarius Violins Are So Expensive

7 Classical Pianists I've Come To Admire On YouTube

11 things they didn't tell you ...

... about playing the flute

11 things they didn’t tell you about playing the flute. Picture: Giphy

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

2K

No-one knows what to call you, dogs are scared of you and your arms will always ache. Sorry, fluterers.

Here are the terrible things no one ever told you about playing the flute...

1. You are haunted by band camp references

   "So have you ever actually been to band ca-"NOPE. NO I HAVEN'T.

   via GIPHY

2. Your arms are in a constant state of fatigue

   No one ever told you that holding such a small instrument could be so achey.

   via GIPHY

3. No one knows what to call you

   Flutist? Flautist? Fluterer? Ah, forget it...

   via GIPHY

4. No one can hear you

   Thanks, other orchestra people, for drowning out everything we're playing. You just can't compete with the brass. *sigh*

   via GIPHY

5. You have a love-hate relationship with the piccolo

   Sure, composers have written some cracking solos for it. But its ultrasonic squeaks might deafen you first.

   via GIPHY

6. There's a lot of spit.

   Every time you lower your instrument, there will be some unwanted leakage. It will probably drip all over your shoes.

   via GIPHY

7. Ledger lines are your enemy

   Composers don't care about giving you nice, logical sheet music. Blame them for your misery.

8. You might feel like you’re going to pass out from all the deep breathing

   Thanks to all those composers who assumed you'd never need to breathe (thx Mozart), playing your instrument becomes a health hazard. Avoid outdoor concerts in extreme heats – they are not your friend.

   via GIPHY

9. Make-up is a problem

   Beware of the flute beard, flutists. The metal in mouthpieces doesn't react well with make-up, and might turn your chin a lovely bluey-green colour. Start bringing make-up wipes with you, in case of emergency.

   via GIPHY

10. You end up accidentally hitting everyone with your instrument

    Who knew such a tiny thing could be such a hazard?

    via GIPHY

11. Dogs hate you

    They see your tiny fingers moving. They hear your mouth squeaking. They don't like it. Consider getting a cat instead.

Did you know Grieg is one of Kermit's favourite composers?

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Sunday Morning Classics

Einaudi Plays Piano on an Iceberg ...

... as an Arctic glacier crumbles around him

By Tim Edwards, Classic FM London

Italian pianist premiered a new piece in Svalbard to publicise Greenpeace’s battle to save the Arctic.

image: http://assets8.classicfm.com/2016/25/einaudi-performs-on-iceberg-in-arctic-1466422462-article-0.png

Greenpeace has persuaded Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi to play on a specially built ‘iceberg’ within 100m of a crumbling glacier as part of their campaign to save the Arctic.

Listen to the best of Einaudi on Composed >

In the video, Einaudi is seen performing his minimalist music in the breathtakingly beautiful surroundings of Wahlenbergbreen glacier in Svalbard, Norway. As he plays one descending scale, huge chunks of ice calve off the glacier. To get to the spectacular location, Einaudicaught a ride with the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise (you can see how the film was made in the video at the bottom of the page): 

Einaudi premiered his new composition, Elegy for the Arctic , as governments gathered in Tenerife to consider a proposal to protect 10% of the Arctic Ocean.

According to Greenpeace, three countries - Norway, Denmark and Iceland - oppose the measure. The Arctic is becoming vulnerable to exploitation for fishing and oil drilling because the extent of sea ice covering the ocean has fallen to record lows in recent years.

Einaudi performs 'Elegy for the Arctic' on 'iceberg'

Georg Friedrich Händel: Feuerwerksmusik/Fireworks Music

Peter Illjitsch Tschaikovsky - Valse Sentimentale

Andre Rieu Plays Live at Wembley Arena

The King of The Waltz made a triumphant return to London to bring his show to Wembley Arena.

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André Rieu live at Wembley Arena

Andre Rieu takes the applause during his festive show at Wembley Arena. 

(C) 2014 ClassicFM London.

Claudio Monteverdi - His Music and His Life

The Italian Claudio Monteverdi has been born in Cremona on May 15, 1567.

In 1590, he became a violinist and singer at the Duke Mantua Castle. 1613, after the duke's death, Monteverdi joined the Venice Mark Cathedrale.

He dedicated his first opera to Duke Mantua, entitled "Favola d'Orfeo" (1607). "L'Arianne" (from 1608), according to tradition, "disappeared". Monteverdi's operas have been in general interest of many other classical composers regarding new arrangements. Carl Orff or Paul Hindemith are two - just to mention them among many others.

Ecclesiastical masterworks, i.e. the "Vespro della Beate Vergine" (1610) or "Scherzi musical a tre voci" (a funny musical for three voices from 1607) have been never forgotten.

Claudio Monteverdi passed away in Venice on November 29, 1643.