Music for 2012 Olympics

[Quarky]

For the more athletically minded R3 listener, we have on Hear and Now, Saturday 19 May music for string quartet and table tennis players:
Joe Cutler: Ping! Coull String Quartet

Part of the 20x12 initiative.

Rather more interesting than SMP's selections on Breakfast to accompany the torch procession.

Not clear to me whether any of the new works at this years Proms will be Olympics inspired. But unthinkable that there will not be any. At the time of the Chinese Olympics, there was a new work by Ma Feng?, which was well received.

[Serial_Apologist]

For the more athletically minded R3 listener, we have on Hear and Now, Saturday 19 May music for string quartet and table tennis players:
Joe Cutler: Ping! Coull String Quartet

Part of the 20x12 initiative.

Rather more interesting than SMP's selections on Breakfast to accompany the torch procession.

Well as a piece of music I thought it was pretty dire. Maybe one had to "be there" to appreciate it - as the audience seemed to.

[ardcarp]

..and there was I, thinking The Forum might be an Olympic-free zone. All the towns, villages, roads and lanes in the West Country are prone to sudden torch blockage at the moment. I might never get to my afternoon appointment...but I can always sing Green Grow the Rushes-Oh a few hundred times in any jam. 5 gold rings...lords a-leaping...etc.

[ardcarp]

Oh, silly me! That's the Christmas one. Oh well, it's all kids-in-the-car-in-a-traffic-jam stuff. Is walking proudly an Olympic event?

[Pabmusic]

The only musical 'success' to come from the Olympics was probably 'V nový život' (Towards a New Life), which won Josef Suk the silver medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. This was when there was an artistic category, for which three medals were available across several arts disciplines. The medals were not guaranteed - I don't think a gold was ever awarded - and 1948 was the last time the artistic category was used.

Suk's march was actually not within the rules, as much of it had been written (and performed) as the Sokol March back in 1920. But he extended it and it became the highest placed musical composition at any Oympics.

[Norfolk Born]

Could we not dedicate 'The Long And Winding Road' (or 'Keep Right On To The End Of The Road', or 'Keep On Runnin') to the whole 70 or however many days it is, and play them in turn only on special occasions (when it goes out - again- or somebody drops it or gets lost or a torch fetches a new record price on ebay, and when it finally arrives)?

[salymap]

In the 1948 Olympic Games at Wembley Stadium, the opening ceremony had Sargent conducting the Royal Choral Society in Roger Quilter's Non Nobis Domine. I remember it because I had friends in the Choir who talked about it.
Do we have anything like that or is it going to be first/last performances of weird new works?

[MrGongGong]

In the 1948 Olympic Games at Wembley Stadium, the opening ceremony had Sargent conducting the Royal Choral Society in Roger Quilter's Non Nobis Domine. I remember it because I had friends in the Choir who talked about it.
Do we have anything like that or is it going to be first/last performances of weird new works?

Surely Roger Quilter's Non Nobis Domine was a weird new work in 1948 ?

[salymap]

Surely Roger Quilter's Non Nobis Domine was a weird new work in 1948 ?

Was it new - I don't know?. It was a lovely piece but haven't heard it since sadly.

[teamsaint]

I am deeply unsympathetic to the whole money making charade, but I have thought for a long time that it would be a touch of class to end the whole thing with this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBxvDNmaMX8

Although whether the Oysters would want to associate with it is another matter!
What a great band. They keep my spirits up in these difficult times.I would vote for them.

[MrGongGong]

Was it new - I don't know?. It was a lovely piece but haven't heard it since sadly.

sadly I suspect we aren't going to get something "weird" or "new"
but I live in hope

Surely THIS is the way to use your stadium ?
this one at Nimes has been in more or less continuous use since the crafty Romans built it
something that won't happen in London

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6I28pPgffA&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL2E7AA044472CF1DF

also did anyone read the interview with Zara Hadid who has't even been invited to any events in the building she designed ???? Rude or what ?

[Quarky]

In the 1948 Olympic Games at Wembley Stadium, the opening ceremony had Sargent conducting the Royal Choral Society in Roger Quilter's Non Nobis Domine. I remember it because I had friends in the Choir who talked about it.
Do we have anything like that or is it going to be first/last performances of weird new works?

Doesn't appear that final decisions have been made as yet: http://www.london2012.com/spectators...creative-team/

But from the look of the Executive team, there won't be anything there of interest. Similarly there are concerts in Hyde Park to mark opening and closing of the games, but featuring Duran Duran and Blur - so similarly off the radar.

Is it really true that a torch bearer sold her torch for £150,000 before she took part in the torch procession? So much for the Olympic spirit! Wonder what the Vestal Virgins make of it all?

[ardcarp]

Surely Roger Quilter's Non Nobis Domine was a weird new work in 1948 ?

New it might have been, but not weird. Very much in the British Bulldog, Hearts of Oak, patriotic and stirring vein. Ludicrously backward-looking in style, but a great tune, which I enjoyed singing as a treble.

[MrGongGong]

New it might have been, but not weird. Very much in the British Bulldog, Hearts of Oak, patriotic and stirring vein. Ludicrously backward-looking in style, but a great tune, which I enjoyed singing as a treble.

hummmm don't think i'll be searching that one out then
thanks for the warning

[decantor]

New it might have been, but not weird. Very much in the British Bulldog, Hearts of Oak, patriotic and stirring vein. Ludicrously backward-looking in style, but a great tune, which I enjoyed singing as a treble.

Quilter's Non Nobis is a setting of words by Kipling, and the music, written in 1934, matches Edwardian sensibilities. But, like ardcarp, I thoroughly enjoyed blasting it out as a treble - so much so that I bought my own copy so that I could accompany myself at home. I see the copy cost me 5d - nearly half a week's pocket-money!