Tag: music

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Notre-Dame Organ

Paris, particularly Notre-Dame de Paris, is a great place to listen to pipe organs. It just needs a little preparation to find out time and place of a concerts. There are actually surprisingly many. At times of official services you might also get an impression of the capacity of organs and organists knowing how to make the pipes sound from soft, melodic to broad, majestic, even overwhelming. In Notre-Dame de Paris the original organ was built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and accomplished in 1868. An “electric blower” (1924) certainly enhanced and prolonged the sound capacities of the already rich orchestration features. Despite the electric enhancement the mechanics remain the primary features of the sound of pipe organs. Olivier Latry at Notre-Dame manages to the audiences into the 21st century’s sound spectrum based on traditional, but adapted variations of classical compositions. Bringing in new talent, like at the “Konzerthaus“, will guarantee that future generations can still enjoy the many worlds of sound that organs open up for us. Short sound impression Notre-Dame de Paris organ play 2026-8.

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Dancing alone

In 2026 it is possible to step into the old telephone box, but to use it as discotheque with music. You can choose your favorite song and dance to it inside the box and photos are taken from yourself to take home. Whereas sociologists have long argued that individualism can go to far in modern societies, the solo disco-box is a telling example of how monetizing of music, dancing and enjoying music can reach levels where people no longer realize how far we have gone beyond „bowling alone“. We do social activities alone and then share the images of the pseudo social activity. Room for social or socializing activities does not come for free, but creating meeting spaces even in crowded cities is worthwhile. Dancing in public rather than a box might be enjoyable for others too.

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Rare instruments

The museum of musical instruments in Brussels features many rare instruments. The collection of grand pianos is a bit hidden on the top floor of the splendid Old England building in the concert hall. The lack of explanations allows you to discover the collection yourself if you happen to be early for a concert for example. Varieties of special features for grand pianos, you might not even have dreamed about, are up there. It would just need a few demonstrations of the technical features to reach larger audiences for these marvelous pieces. The combination of grand piano and harpsichord features has not made it into many concert halls, but special appearances could find their audiences. Maintenance, however, is a costly issue, whiich might have to rely on devoted sponsors in the cultural treasures of rare instruments. 

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Exams time

From time to time its exams time. Students of all ages have to face juries or standardized exams. For the credibility and for the sake of transparency, exams of higher grades invite the public to participate in these academic and learning rituals. For profs it is a moment to demonstrate the standards against which accomplishments and yearly progress is assessed. The level of instruction  is, however, still difficult to assess as the prior level, the year or years before is of course a quite influential intervening factor. Recruit the best and you are likely to have the best results after year after as well. The clarity about what is going to be assessed at the end of a Masters degree is essential as various target professional activities might determine a student’s orientation and ambition. Music is a great case to study as many students go into teaching professions afterwards and only a few shall aim for stage performance level or orchestra positions. Even within music exams time is not only just about music. 

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Light Locomotion

There are many politicians who have an innate tendency to move in the direction of any flash light or camera. Tenagers in the age of the “not-so-social media” have a similar reflex. More seriously, Science Advances, has presented a fully autonomous robot with such a behavior. In fact this form of light locomotion is named the “twirlbot”. It has been developed by Chi Chen et al. (2026) as a new kind of robot that can be directed using light impulses, as only energy source for moving towards the light source. The from of locomotion is inspired by nature (bionics) and more precisely the “tumbleweed” way of moving, better rolling forward, driven by wind energy. The tumbleweed-inspired rolling robot, short “twirlbot”, does not need mechanical devices, just energy in a specific frequency range of light, which provides the heat for the photoactive, otherwise passive, bilayer strips. The polyhedral geometry of the twirlbot allows omni-directional locomotion. It really resembles the light active politician or any posing in the spotlight while doing the “loco-motion” (Video Link performance by “Little Eva” in the early 60s or a late 80s version by Kylie Minogue).

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Pictures at an exhibition

The playlist on Spotify, which accompanies the exhibition “Unforgettable” in Ghent, is an interesting extension of the unforgettable artists into today and tomorrow. You may be inclined to share your opinion in the way Maria Iskariot does it in “Dat find ik lekker” or more like Sophie Straat in “Dansen met de dood”. Anyway, women artists are coming front stage and this is great news despite all the backlashes we, unfortunately, witness in the 2020s. The curator of the playlist Murielle Scherre has managed to take us, a bit like the exuberant Modest Mussorgsky in his “Pictures at an exhibition”, beyond the marvelous exhibition rooms to a broad exploration of contemporary women artists’ world of imagination in music, visuals and songs. A great intergenerational accomplishment. 

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Cyprus Aphrodite

The legendary tales about Aphrodite and Cypriote cultural heritage have inspired not only a series of conquerors, but also composers of the romantic period in the 19th century. Somehow in praise of monarchy, Fromental Halevy composed the Opera “La Reine de Chypre”, inwhich the last Queen of Cyprus had to abdicate in the medieval era.  As a formidable example of French opera style, Richard Wagner transcribed it for salon-type recitals for voice and piano. The ballet music by Franz Schubert “Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern“ is yet another romantic piece built on the legendary associations with the island and its history. The exhibition “Cyprus at the BNF” in Paris proposes a transversal view across centuries based on their multiple collections. The western bias of what we in the western hemisphere of the world defined as being of interest becomes visible and transparent. The oriental perspective has been complemented by a small selection of exhibits from the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation. A critical perspective on what enters our collections and archives is a great scientific accomplishment, at times when biased views from politicians have become more common again. 

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Free Lunch

Who told you that there is no free lunch? On the premises of “The Berlin Philharmonic” a group of toddlers and babies had a free musical lunch. On the occasion of the lunch concert on 2026-1-28 in the spacious entry hall young musicians (piano, Ana Bakradze, and violoncello, Carlo Lay) gave a concert with Sonatas from Beethoven (op. 69) and Britten (op. 65) to an exceptionally broad range of ages in the audience. People fully enjoyed the concert, irrespective of uncomfortable seating also on stairs, if they managed to find a seat at all. The occasional breast feeding seemed to be the free lunch for some privileged babies. The adults were invited to contribute a donation to the UN refugee fund. Instead of the usual seasonal coughing, there were delighted outcries from the youngest, which enchanted the aging audiences additionally. The 2 musicians excelled in concentration on their performance in spite of the challenging setting.

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Time and music

The trick about music is the sheer unlimited variety it allows to experience time. We all think primarily of rhythm as the direct link between time and music. Then there are the additional annotations of composers on their scores like “lento” or “presto”. In addition each note has a frequency as swinging per second, which serves as the basis for synchronization of an orchestra. The length of each note or a each phrase of music evokes specific emotions in listeners. Human embryos even register music as the frequencies and duration travel across boundaries. The relationship of time and music is such a vast subject matter that the scope of this deserves to be studied across centuries, music periods as well as across cultures. Certainly, we find a few books on the subject beyond the simple physics of waves lengths and frequencies.

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Konzerthaus Organ

In the Espresso Concert series we have had the chance to listen to young talented musicians. On 2026-1-7 Julian Emanuel Becker charmed the audience with 5+1 pieces in the “Großer Saal“ on the Jehmlich Organ (4 manuals, 74 registers, 5811 pipes). The program ranged from Bruhns, Bach, Mendelssohn Bartholdy to 2 pieces by Jehan Alain, which made for an interesting surprise. Mastering this huge Konzerthaus organ with impressive skills at just 20 years of age caught the attention of the Berlin audience including the tourists on visits. The enthusiasm of Julian Emanuel Becker for his instrument and the brief introductions he gave himself to each piece created a unique learning as well as musical experience for the entire audience irrespective of age and prior expertise. The „Espresso addicts“ of the Konzerthaus even took the chance to chat with the young organist to learn more about the marvelous instrument and the next steps in his promising career. The studies in Paris at the Conservatoire have been important steps in the careers of formidable pianists and composers for more than 200 years. Becker will surely return to Berlin to give concerts again. Try to catch a seat, if you can. (Image: Julian Emanuel Becker 2026-1-7 at the Konzerthaus Jehmlich Organ)