The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)

The Four Seasons (Italian: Le quattro stagioni) is a group of four violin concerti by Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi, each of which gives a musical expression to a season of the year. They were written about 1723 and were published in 1725 in Amsterdam, together with eight additional violin concerti, as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest Between Harmony and Invention").

The Four Seasons is the best known of Vivaldi's works. Unusually for the time, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying poems (possibly written by Vivaldi himself) that elucidated what it was about those seasons that his music was intended to evoke. It provides one of the earliest and most-detailed examples of what was later called program music—music with a narrative element.

Vivaldi took great pains to relate his music to the texts of the poems, translating the poetic lines themselves directly into the music on the page. In the middle section of the Spring concerto, where the goatherd sleeps, his barking dog can be marked in the viola section. Other natural occurrences are similarly evoked. Vivaldi separated each concerto into three movements, fast-slow-fast, and likewise each linked sonnet into three sections. His arrangement is as follows:

Spring (Rachmaninoff)

Spring (Vesna), Op. 20, is a single-movement cantata for baritone, chorus and orchestra, written by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1902.

The work was finished after the famous Second Piano Concerto. Rachmaninoff intended to revise the cantata's orchestration but never did so.

Programme

The work is based on a poem by Nikolay Nekrasov and describes the return of the Zelyoniy shum, or "green rustle". The poem tells of a husband who, fraught with murderous thoughts towards his unfaithful wife during the winter season, is ultimately freed from his frustration and choler by the return of spring.

References

American Spring

American Spring (known as Spring from 1971–72) were a pop music duo formed in Los Angeles, composed of sisters Diane Rovell and Marilyn Wilson, who had earlier been members of girl group the Honeys. As with the Honeys, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys (Marilyn's then-husband) played an integral role with American Spring, producing some of their recorded material.

Biography

Formation and early years

After Ginger Blake, cousin of Marilyn Wilson and Diane Rovell, left the Honeys to go pursue a solo singing career in Las Vegas in 1970, the Honeys effectively dissolved as a group. In 1971, while in her sister's kitchen, Diane Rovell pushed the idea of continuing to create music with her sister Marilyn as a pop duo named "Spring". The band had their first official recording sessions at Brian Wilson's home studio in October 1971 and issued their first single "Now That Everything's Been Said" later that month. After releasing a second single, "Good Time" in May 1972, Spring released their first album, the self-titled Spring in July 1972.

Again (T-ara EP)

Again is the fifth extended play by South Korean girl group T-ara, released on October 10, 2013 by Core Contents Media. It was the first album released after member Lee Areum left the group, and the first to feature the original six-member line-up since T-ara's debut.

Background and release

On October 6, 2013, T-ara announced the impending release of double lead singles to promote their upcoming EP, Again. The album was released digitally on October 10, including the singles "Number 9" (넘버나인) and "Because I Know" (느낌 아니까; Neukkim Anikka) and their music videos. "Number 9" is an electro-pop dance song with sad lyrics and melody. It was choreographed by Yama & Hotchicks, who also choreographed "Bo Peep Bo Peep". "Because I Know" is a mid-tempo song with an acoustic feel.

A repackaged edition of the EP, Again 1977, was released on December 4, 2013. It contains two new songs, "Again 1977" and "Do You Know Me", a remake of Sand Pebbles' 1977 hit, "What Should I Do". The EP was repackaged and digitally re-released again, on December 14, 2013, as White Winter with two Christmas songs, "Hide and Seek" and "Middle of Winter Hide and Seek".

Again (horse)

Again (foaled 22 May 2006) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. She was one of the leading Irish two-year-old fillies of 2008, when she won three of her five races including the Debutante Stakes and the Moyglare Stud Stakes. She recorded her most important win when taking the Irish 1,000 Guineas on her three-year-old debut, but was beaten in her three subsequent races.

Background

Again is a bay mare with a white blaze bred in Ireland by Southern Bloodstock, a breeding operation associated with the Coolmore Stud. She was sired by Danehill Dancer, the Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland in 2009, whose other progeny have included Mastercraftsman and Choisir. Again's dam Cumbres, was an unraced half-sister of the multiple Group One winner Montjeu. During her racing career, the detail of Again's ownership changed from race to race: she was alternately described as being owned by Michael Tabor and by a partnership of Tabor and Susan Magnier. She was trained by David Wachman, the son-in-law of Coolmore's head John Magnier, at Goolds Cross in County Tipperary.

Again (Jessica Sutta song)

"Again" is a song by American recording artist Jessica Sutta which featured American musician, deejay and record producer Kemal Golden. It will be released as her second single from her debut album Sutta Pop, which has yet to be released, via Citrusonic Records. The track comes after the release of Sutta's number 1 dance single Show Me. It was released on March 26.

Background and release

Written by Sutta, Golden, Alana Da Fonseca and Cameron Nacson, "Again" marks an intriguing next step for the former girl group member of the Pussycat Dolls. Sutta has already scored a Hot Dance Charts hit with her 2011 single "Show Me," but the 30-year-old pop singer tells Billboard that "Again" is a particularly personal dance track. "It talks about the cyclone of energy that happens when the wrong decisions are made in your life over and over again," she says. "Whether it's a lifestyle choice or a bad relationship, it talks about a darker part of my life, but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm grateful for every experience in my life no matter how good or bad they are. It makes me who I am."

Gala (singer)

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Gala (born Gala Rizzatto, 6 September 1975) is an Italian pop singer-songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. Gala has sold over six million records worldwide. Her debut album Come Into My Life included the multiplatinum singles "Freed From Desire", "Let a Boy Cry" and "Come Into My Life" which reached the Top 3 in music charts across Europe, South America, Russia and the Middle East.

Biography

Early life

Named by her parents after Salvador Dalí and Paul Eluard's muse, Gala Dali, Gala left Italy at 17 to attend art school in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1993 she moved to New York where she graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts and became a photographer capturing the New York underground scene of artists and club-goers in the city.

1996–2001: early music career

In exchange of a photo for a European DJ, Gala recorded her first demo. "Freed From Desire" was written in New York and then mailed overseas on a cassette tape. It was recorded in London and was released by Italian independent label Do It Yourself Records.