Welcome to Shift, where Tom Allen takes you on a daily musical journey from the stalwarts of Classical music to the cutting edge of Contemporary tunes. Join us here on CBC music for a round-up of the stories of the day, some videos of music (or maybe just videos interesting to music fans) and a place to speak your voice.
Monday November 19th
Famous musicians are well known to ask for ridiculous things. For example, asking for M&Ms in their dressing room, but for all of the red ones to be picked out. This has been going on a long time. Richard Mühlfeld was such a good clarinet player, Johannes Brahms came out of retirement to write him new pieces. But Mühlfeld wasn't one to make things easy. He played significantly lower than most musicians preferred. That meant for a piano player to join him, they had to tune all 88 strings down, and then back up after the piece had been finished. Hours of work, but worth it for the talent behind the clarinet.
(our on-air broadcast featured this piece being performed by Andre Moisan)
Groundbreaking news from the BBC this week: dogs that have paralyzed are walking again. It turns out Jasper the dachsund had what he needed to walk again all along. It was right under his nose.
One of the massive influences behind Alfred Hitchcock is becoming clearer. It's his wife, Alma Reville. She's the one who noticed a death character swallowing in Psycho, and edited it out. She'll also be played by Helen Mirren in the upcoming film Hitchcock.
And in honour of the Hitchcock and Reville family, we offer you this:
You can contact us at SHIFT with your ideas, questions, or anything else by sending us a message on our Facebook page. Through email, you can reach show producers Alison Howard ( alison.howard@cbc.ca ) or Alex Redekop ( alex.redekop@cbc.ca ).