It's all about the classical music composers and their works from the last 400 years and much more about music. Hier erfahren Sie alles über die klassischen Komponisten und ihre Meisterwerke der letzten vierhundert Jahre und vieles mehr über Klassische Musik.
Known to Japanese locals as ‘Melody Roads’, these harmonious highways play music to drivers as they travel around the country. But it’s not just for entertainment...
If you ever find yourself taking a scenic trip around Japan, keep an eye (and ear) out for these music-playing roads.
Yep, quite literally, the roads will ring out loud and clear with the sound of popular Japanese songs.
Designed by locals and known as ‘Melody Roads’, they work by using special grooves that have been cut into the road’s surface, which respond to friction from car tires. The depth and spacing of the grooves control volume and sound (see them in action in the video above).
But of course, there’s more to this novel idea than you would first think.
The melody will only play at the perfect tempo if people are driving at the set speed limit, encouraging them to travel safely and at a steady pace.
Japan’s musical road entertains drivers
Credit: Instagram / kennigrace.tan
The music is also intended to alert tired drivers, stopping them from falling asleep at the wheel and decreasing the number of car accidents in the area.
Plus, since there are grooves in the road, any rain water can drain much faster, which prevents hydroplaning.
There are several hit songs for you to enjoy – from ‘Shiretoko Ryojo’, found on a regional road in Shibetsu, and ‘Country Road (Studio Ghibli’s Whispers of the Heart)’ on Kaneyama’s National Route 252, to ‘Fuji no Yama’ on the Ashinoko Skyline.
And it seems tourists are already impressed with the concept, sharing their videos on social media:
Melody road in Japan. When traveling at the specified speed limit, road noise becomes a melody. 千と千尋の曲が流れてくるメロディロード https://youtu.be/TrptmOJyHac@YouTubeさんから
In Japan you can find melody roads. There are grooves, which are cut at specific intervals in the surface. When you drive over those small markings, you can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle. The melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes.
...‘sleeps with his violin’ and ‘creates melodies’
Janet Jackson's son loves the violin. Picture: Getty
By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM
Janet Jackson reckons her two-year-old son could follow in the family footsteps and become a musical prodigy, as he has started sleeping with his violin.
Janet Jackson, international pop icon and the youngest child of the Jackson family, has revealed her son could be following in his family’s musical footsteps.
Speaking to Australia’s Stellar magazine, Janet said that Eissa, who is just two years old, loves playing the violin and practises it almost every day.
“He kept taking his drum stick and running it across his guitar,” she revealed. “I thought, ‘Why is he playing it like a cello?’
“He went into his room and got a figurine of a violin and brought it to me. Then he grabbed his drumstick and guitar and kept going.”
Janet Jackson gave an interview with Stellar magazine about motherhood. Picture: Stellar
Jackson, who made her debut at Glastonbury festival in June, is a single mother and gave birth to Eissa, her first child, in 2017.
She continued: “So I came home with a toy violin, showed him one time how to hold it and that was it. Then I bought him a real violin and he got so excited.”
“He sleeps with it. He eats breakfast, lunch and dinner with it,” Janet laughed. “I show him little kids playing violin on the iPad, then he was finding them himself, all these child prodigies. He creates melodies.”
Plácido Domingo concerts cancelled as sexual harassment investigation opens.Picture: Getty
By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM
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In the light of sexual harassment allegations made against Plácido Domingo, major classical concert venues in the US have cancelled upcoming engagements with the 78-year-old Spanish tenor.
Plácido Domingo has been accused of sexually harassing nine women over three decades, in a report published by Associated Press.
Eight singers and one dancer told the publication that the 78-year-old maestro made unwanted sexual advances on them in the 1980s, ‘90s and early 2000s. According to the AP report, many said that when they refused the advances, they stopped getting hired for productions in which Domingo was involved.
The Los Angeles Opera, of which Domingo is general director, has announced an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment made against the Spanish tenor.
L.A. Opera will “engage outside counsel” to investigate the accusations, the opera company said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “We believe all employees and artists should be treated respectfully and feel safe and secure within their work environment.”
Yesterday, the Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Opera announced they would cancel upcoming performances featuring the opera singer.
New York’s Met Opera said it would await results of L.A. Opera’s investigation “before making any final decisions about Mr. Domingo’s future at the Met”. Domingo is scheduled to appear at the Met next month in a production of Verdi’s opera Macbeth.
His concert with San Francisco Opera, on 6 October, had been scheduled to mark Domingo’s 50th anniversary of performing with the company, and was promoted as a ‘special one performance-only event’ with ‘one of the most influential singing actors in the history of opera’.
The opera house said that although no sexual behaviour is alleged to have taken place at the San Francisco Opera, the company is “committed to its strong anti-sexual harassment policy and requires all company members to adhere to the highest standards of professional conduct.”
The Philadelphia Orchestra also withdrew its invitation for Domingo to appear at its opening night concert next month, saying: “We are committed to providing a safe, supportive, respectful, and appropriate environment for the orchestra and staff, for collaborating artists and composers, and for our audiences and communities.”
Plácido Domingo, 78-year-old Spanish tenor, accused of sexual harassment. Picture: Getty
Domingo, a Grammy Award-winning opera singer and conductor, is one of the most respected and powerful figures in opera. Also famous for being one of The Three Tenors, he still performs sell-out shows worldwide.
The alleged harassment took place over three decades, and while Domingo was married. According to AP, one accuser said Domingo stuck his hand down her skirt, while three others said he forcibly kissed them.
Many of the women, including a mezzo soprano who sang in the L.A. Opera chorus in 1988, told AP that when they turned down his sexual advances, they were punished in their careers.
L.A. Opera’s statement notes that Domingo has been “a dynamic creative force in the life of L.A. Opera and the artistic culture of Los Angeles for more than three decades. Nevertheless, we are committed to doing everything we can to foster a professional and collaborative environment where all our employees and artists feel equally comfortable, valued and respected.”
Domingo has called the allegations “deeply troubling and, as presented inaccurate,” adding, “I believed that all of my interactions and relationships were always welcomed and consensual.”
The tenor also noted: “Still, it is painful to hear that I may have upset anyone or made them feel uncomfortable.”
Domingo is scheduled to appear at the Salzburg Festival in Austria on 31 August – his next scheduled performance. Festival president Helga Rabl-Stadler said he will appear as planned.
“I have known Plácido Domingo for more than 25 years,” she said in a statement.
“In addition to his artistic competence, I was impressed from the very beginning by his appreciative treatment of all festival employees.
“I would find it factually wrong and morally irresponsible to make irreversible judgments at this point,” she said.
Olivier Latry performs at Saanen Church in Gstaad, Switzerland as part of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival 2019. Picture: Gstaad Menuhin Festival
By Rosie Pentreath
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Ahead of his appearance at Gstaad Menuhin Festival, we talked to Notre-Dame organist Olivier Latry about the challenges and opportunities that come with playing different organs around the world.
For his recent appearance at Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Olivier Latry traded Notre-Dame Cathedral’s French symphonic organ (which is sadly undergoing repair, since the devastating fire at the Cathedral in April) for the German Baroque organ of Saanen Church in Switzerland.
It turns out that preparing for a concert of organ works in a new town, city, country or continent isn’t as simple as rocking up to the keyboard and using muscle memory to reel off Bach’s finest fugues or Widor’s wildest arpeggios.
Indeed, according to Latry, it’s not like being a pianist who might have to take into account slight variations in an instrument’s touch or pedal weights. There are huge .differences and it’s not the case that an organ by any other name would sound as sweet…
"The sound is different, especially the attack of the bite,” Latry explains. “The German organ is very precise on the attack of the note, whereas the French symphony organ has an inertia like that of a symphony orchestra.
“It’s comparable to the French language where we do not have so many articulations or consonants as in Germany where they have consonants everywhere. You can hear it in the pipes.”
And whereas a flautist and violinist, say, can bring their own instrument to a new venue, and a pianist will be greeted with a pretty familiar situation when they sit at a new piano, an organist can be confronted with any number of keyboards, keyboards in different places (i.e. arranged vertically versus horizontally), different stops and entirely different ranges of octaves.
Olivier Latry, Notre-Dame organist. Picture: Gstaad Menuhin Festival
“In Saanen, the German organ has many high stops and is based vertically, and the sound is lighter. On a French organ, the sound is darker and it would be a more horizontal set-up. In terms of sound, it’s like the difference between a quartet(German Baroque) and the Berlin Philharmonic (French symphonic).”
So, no going on autopilot for an organist, then?
“No way,” responds Latry. “It’s like driving a car where the indicator control is no longer on the left where you expect it, but on the right, so you can’t go into autopilot mode.
“And on some organs, it’s like driving a car where the accelerator is on the side that you expect the break to be! So, we have to be very careful all the time.”
Saanen Church in Gstaad, Switzerland. Picture: Gstaad Menuhin Festival
Who is Olivier Latry?
Olivier Latry is the French organist who has worked at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris since 1985. He studied organ with Gaston Litaize and composition with Jean-Claude Raynaud, among others.
Telling us about Litaize, Latry said, “We had what was called tea time: we turned the organ off, went into the room behind it and heard all these stories about Paris in the 1920s and 30s.
“Litaiz told us, ‘my greatest chance in life was to be 20 during the 30s in Paris’ and I have always remembered that. Knowing all these stories told by someone who lived that time just brings it to life. It was incredible.”
The Menuhin Festival in Gstaad was established by violinist Yehudi Menuhin in 1957, following visits to the region in the previous two years in which he had been scouting out suitable locations for a summer residence.
“Local tourism officers motivated Menuhin to have a look in Saanen Church and to bring his violin,” Gstaad Menuhin Festival director, Christoph Müller tells us.
“He played some notes here and he fell completely in love with the church. He decided in a very spontaneous moment to organise two concerts on 2 and 4 August 1957, with his friends Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.”
From this illustrious trio – sounds like a set of dream dinner party guests, to us – the festival continued and grew around this ethos of making beautiful music with friends in a stunning part of Switzerland.
“This group was the birth of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and a manifest for the spirit for the event,” Christoph explains. “He invited friends and played chamber music with them in the relaxed atmosphere here. It grew, and he was artistic director for forty years until 1996.”
Christoph Müller, Gstaad Menuhin Festival director . Picture: Gstaad Menuhin Festival
Gstaad Menuhin would become one of the most important festivals in the Alps, according to Müller, and by the 1990s was the second largest festival in Switzerland (after Lucerne).
This year’s theme is Paris and along with Latry, highlights have included performances from soprano Patricia Petibon and pianist Bertrand Chamayou, with concerts from the likes of pianists Gabriela Montero and Yuja Wang, and cellist Gautier Capuçon.
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