From New York City to Niagara Falls, hundreds of Gays and Lesbians joined their lives and futures together as Equal Citizens of the State of New York in matrimony starting as early as one minute after midnight and continuing on throughout the day yesterday. My congratulations to all who have or are planning to Tie the Knot in New York. It is a great time to be GLBT in New York.
For music today, I have Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 (Akademische Festouvertüre), a much lighter counterpart to his Tragic Overture. He composed it in 1880 when he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Breslau (now Wroclaw), as a musical show of gratitude. The music is very light-hearted, warm and humorous, but Brahms uses the occasion as a tour-de-force in contrapuntal symphonic writing. The orchestra whisks through several pulsing, boisterous melodies, which Brahms described as a "potpourri of student drinking songs," subtly mocking the academic institution for which he composed the piece. At 9:10 the orchestra erupts into a joyous rendition of "Gaudeamus igitur" ("So let us rejoice," a.k.a. "On the shortness of life"), a popular Latin graduation hymn which was originally a beer-drinking song. The recording is by Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The images are of Solti, Brahms, the University of Wroclaw, and the beautiful old city of Wroclaw, Poland.
The video is followed in due course by those marvelous men in their Monday's Undies to tease and excite you for this Monday. Thanks for the visit, c0me back soon and often. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
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