In defense of Buxtehude’s daughter

“Buxtehude’s ugly daughter.” “Buxtehude’s daughter was so old and ugly.” “Buxtehude’s ugly German daughter.” Even, “the Anna Margareta Buxtehude Barrier (Pictured AMBB).” One blog article going as far as to ponder “it occurred to me that western music might have worked out a whole lot differently if Buxtehude’s daughter had been better looking.” Search for […]

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Keeping hymns real and relevant

Your favorite hymns, including Christmas carols (which have already started to play on high rotation in shops and shopping malls), are probably around 200 years old. Which places them smack bang at the height of the Victorian colonial expansion era.  I think the death and reporting of the funeral of QEII shone a spotlight on […]

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Tomorrow I will be

I have wanted to perform these works by the modern composer Nico Muhly (b. 1981) for some time now. The O Antiphons have a special and specific role in preperation for Christmas. Seven songs for seven nights before Christmas Eve. The Antiphons form the Latin acrostic ‘Ero cras’ meaning ‘Tomorrow I will be’, these antiphons […]

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Cabanilles and me: a journey

For some reason the music of Juan Cabanilles (1644–1712) hit a chord with me, in that strange post/mid-covid opening up of Victoria (Australia) during Lent 2021. I think it was the expressive virtuosity of his music, littered as it is with references to the past mystery of modes, and the deeply personal, that compelled me […]

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