On musical matters

The day before yesterday, or even a day earlier, I don't remember exactly, there was a programme on German TV, called The Most Popular Christmas Songs. People could vote through the 'Net or on postcards for their favourite. Quite a few modern and/or American songs got in, to my surprise. Well, it's a matter of taste, I guess.

For me, personally, nothing can beat German Christmas songs/carols. Absolutely nothing. Not even Hungarian ones, although they come close. Traditional German Christmas carols have a serenity to them only liturgical Gregorian pieces can match. French songs might be funny and American songs my swing, but for me, none of them can even come close to the true mystery of Christmas. German carols never fail to make me shiver with anticipation. I do have a hang for the melancholy stuff, after all, it seems.

On a different musical matter, I've been googling for descriptions of medieval dances for my Advent project. Google produced almost eight hundred thousand(!)links concerning medieval dances. I got as far as the first six or seven pages, and barely found one link that I could use. Still no real googling skills, it seems.

I was also googling for Christmas carols. Got a lot of links, again. Never found the one from last year where my personal favourites were to be found. Things like Adeste fideles, Il est né le divine Enfant and In dulci jubilo. Should have saved the link a year ago, I guess. Too late for that, alas. And I'm still looking for Transeamus. Ah, well, it's not as if I would need any of them, I'd just have liked to find them again.

Heartfelt thanks!

To the most generous anonymous person who's gifted 6 months worth of paid LJ account upon me. Thank you, whoever you are!

Whoa! I've got a paid account! levade, you were right! I'm gonna upload all the gorgeous sci-fi icons karri made for me. Ha!

And if you want to see the first two versions of Lord Orchald, made by Mira the talented one, look here:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/mirasaui/SeanC2.jpg
and here:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/mirasaui/SeanC.jpg

I find both great. But again, Sean Connery belongs to the sort of men who look a lot better at a more advanced age than they ever did ans young rascals.

Thanks, Mira, and thanks, oh anonymous sponsor! *does happy dance*

Movie: Jesus Christ Superstar

My PC froze in the middle of writing this entry for the first time. *sighs*
Let's hope it won't repeat the act. I really need someone to take a look, and soon.

Anyway, the new German channel called "das Vierte" (which simply means the fourth one) brought "Jesus Christ Superstar" tonight. I haven't seen that film before. When it first came out, we still had communism in this country, and films like that weren't welcome.

Some clever people smuggled in nth-generation audio cassette copies of the soundtrack. And as photocopying didn't exist back then (not in Hungary anyway), others hand-typed the lyrics and roughly translated them for those who didn't speak English (which included me, at that time).

I remember that we were ecstatic about the music. It was something new and revolutionary, something we hadn't know before in context with a religious topic. I also remember how we regretted not being able to see the film itself.

Now that I've finally seen it, I'm of two minds about it. I see that we really missed a lot by not having the visuals, with all their powerful symbolism. The scene where Judas was running from the tanks in the desert or the bomber jets flew over him were unforgettable. I liked the guy who played Judas a great deal, and the High Priests impressed the hell out of me, especially Kaiaphas. The man had a voice to die for.

On the other hand, Jesus and Mary Magdalen were quite the disappointment. I guess it's the same thing as reading a book, making your own visuals, then see the movie adaptation and feel cheated by it. Still, I'm very glad I finally had the chance to see it.