Barbara Allen!

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From the website of Consortium Internationale Compositorum (CIC):

Ciampa follows his popular arrangement of “Shenandoah” with another folk song arrangement, this time of “Barbara Allen“. The tune was one of the most popular songs in 18th-century England.

“Barbara Allen” is also in several moderan American hymnals, with the sacred text, “Accept, O Lord, the gifts we bring“. Ciampa’s lush arrangement was a hit at its 6 June 2010 premiere at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall. Its warmth and wide dynamic range are sure to make it a favorite chestnut among organists in concert and church.

Dopo il popolare arrangiamento di “Shenandoah” ecco un altro arrangiamento di Leonardo Ciampa, questa volta di “Barbara Allen“. Si tratta di una delle più popolari canzoni dell’Inghilterra del XVIII secolo.

“Barbara Allen” si trova anche in alcuni innali americani, con il testo sacro “Accept, O Lord, the gifts we bring“. Il ricco arrangiamento di Ciampa è stato presentato il 6 giugno 2010 al Methuen Memorial Music Hall.

Buy the score

Audio clip recorded live, 6 June 2010 (private recording by Paul Raila) – HYMN FESTIVAL, Methuen Memorial Music Hall – Leonardo Ciampa, organist

My Remarkable Son

I have long been convinced that if Nino, age six, were someday to be a musician, he would seek to perform complete collections of pieces – the opera omnia of this composer or that.

He already owned the complete Wiggles videos; but, after all, way back then he was only five! The 14-volume collection of the Muppets’ greatest episodes is certainly more stimulating to this mature and curious mind!

Note, however, that seeing them all typed on a sheet of paper (courtesy of his step-mother) was not enough for him. Nor was he satisfied to mark the favorites of himself, his brother, father, mother, and step-mother. But it was important for him to note that Juliet Prowse was the very first episode (marked with a "1") and Roger Moore was the very last, which Nino knew was the 125th episode (though he didn't know how to write such a number, his attempt being "1025"!).

Your [Be]longings

Friends,

I'm sure you agree that there is an oversaturation of "inspirational words" on the Internet. Our Junk Mail folders are filled with them. This, however, is real and was sent to me last Saturday by my dear friend and colleague, Doris Marion:

On the Orange Line yesterday, some letters had been scratched off one of the signs. So it said, PLEASE DO YOUR PART AND BE SURE TO TAKE YOUR "LONGINGS" WITH YOU UPON YOUR DEPARTURE.

I've been trying to keep this in mind.

Methuen Sound Clips!

Friends,

My only regret from the glorious Methuen Hymnfest (June 6) is that it wasn't recorded – or so I believed. Imagine my surprise last week when my good friend Paul Raila handed me two surreptitiously recorded CDs, in excellent sound!

Enjoy: http://leonardociampa.com/MMMH

Greatest Moments of Singing XVI

The last post made me too depressed, so here's an entirely more lighthearted one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCvAM1rk8SI&feature=related

Here is an approximate translation:

Vincenzella was weaving her dowry
Night and day at the loom
Making the spool fly:
Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu

As she toiled, the good lady,
She sang a song of love
in a voice that went straight to the heart.
And it went something like this:

Turì-turì-turò; Turì-turì-turò
No good trying to say no
No good trying to resist,
When a woman wants something,
with her eyes she makes you do it.

Finally the lady got married
To a dumb rich man in the village,
after a year, they made him baron
Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu

This dumb baron had to go to the country,
And left his wife to weave.
When he came home that evening
he found her singing like this:

Turì-turì-turò; Turì-turì-turò
No good trying to say no
No good trying to resist,
When a woman wants something,
with her eyes she makes you do it.

Suspicious, one night he returned home
an hour earlier, just to be safe.
But from behind the shutter he heard:
Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu

He took a matchbox, lit a match
and lit a candle.
He saw Vincenzella, his wife, with the fabric,
and he saw something else.
And she was singing like this:

Turì-turì-turò; Turì-turì-turò
No good trying to say no
No good trying to resist,
When a woman wants something,
with her eyes she makes you do it.

Greatest Moments of Singing XV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2cHhpMJbE

In my grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations, Toselli's Serenade was extremely popular. It's hard to imagine a most beautiful rendering than Gigli's 1926 recording.

SERENATA RIMPIANTO
REGRETFUL SERENADE
Musica di Enrico Toselli / Parole di Alfredo Silvestri

Come un sogno d'or
scolpito è nel core
Il ricordo ancor di quell'amor
che non esiste più.

Fu la sua vision,
qual dolce sorriso
che più lieta fa,
col suo brillar, la nostra gioventù.

Ma fu molto breve in me
la dolcezza di quel ben
svanì quel bel sogno d'or
lasciando in me il dolor.

Cupo è l'avvenir,
sempre più tristi i dì,
la gioventù passata sarà,
rimpianto mi resta sol,
sì, rimpianto amaro e duol nel cor!

O raggio di sole
Sul mio cammino, ahimè, non brilli più
Mai più, mai più

Like a golden dream
sculpted in my heart,
the memory still of that love
that no longer exists

It was the vision of her,
that sweet smile
that makes our youth more pleasant
with its shine.

But it was very brief in me
the sweetness of that gift vanished,
that beautiful dream of love
leaving pain in me.

Dark is the future;
the days grow always sadder;
my youth will be over;
only regret remains to me,
yes, bitter regret and pain in my heart!

O sunbeam,
on my pathway, alas, you no longer shine,
never again, never again.

English translation © MMX Leonardo A. Ciampa. All rights reserved.

Methuen Hymn Festival for Haiti Relief

Christ Lutheran Church in Natick, MA
The Rev. Rebecca J. Bourret, Pastor
Leonardo Ciampa, Music Director

invites you to lend your voices
to an unforgettable

HYMN FESTIVAL

A fundraiser to benefit
Lutheran Disaster Response
efforts in Haiti

Renowned organist
LEONARDO CIAMPA
plays the Great Organ of Methuen

SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010, at 4 p.m.
Methuen Memorial Music Hall
192 Broadway (Route 28) in Methuen, MA

Tickets: $12 ($8 for seniors & students)

For tickets or other information, call
Christ Lutheran Church, (508) 315-3170 X4
or e-mail music@christnatick.org