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.
Thursday March 28th
Welcome to SHIFT for Good Friday on the Christian calendar year. Good Friday has had a massive impact on classical music, and we'll be playing some pieces that reflect that throughout the day.
Here's a piece of showmanship from the Vatican. A piece by Gregorio Allegri called the Miserere Mei was only sung in the Sistine Chapel on holy week. For the rest of the year, the sheet music was kept locked away. This meant that people would come from far and wide to hear the music when it was played, a smart move by the Vatican. However, a young Mozart happened into the chapel during holy week, heard it twice, and wrote it down. After a fire shortly after, the music Mozart copied down became that much more coveted.
(our on-air broadcast featured this piece being performed by the Tallis Scholars)
Also on today's show, a piece fro Richard Wagner that is often simply referred to as "Good Friday Music" from his opera Parsifal.
(our on-air broadcast featured this piece of music being performed by the New York Philharmonic)
Whitehorse are a picture of DIY (Do-It-Yourself). Take a look at their performance on Q, where Luke Doucet and Melissa McLelland essentially act as two one-man-bands. They cover the percussion duties on top of guitar and bass, plus some other details.
Read the story of the Irish fisherman who got caught in his rigging, and dragged underwater. He was dead for a minute before being rescued and revived. It shows both the fragility, and resilience, of humanity.
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 ) or Pete Morey ( peter.morey@cbc.ca )