Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Me?  I’d get fired in 3 minutes

Scented Muse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scented Muse?  News?    So punny on a Monday!

The Devilscent Variations are now available in Limited Edition on my website.

Dr. Ellen Covey, one of the perfumers who participated in the Devilscent Project, has written an excellent comparison of some of the participants fragrances.  You can find the 4 part series here at her blog: 
http://perfumenw.blogspot.dk/2013/01/the-devil-and-his-perfumers.html

http://perfumenw.blogspot.dk/2013/01/the-devil-and-his-perfumers-part-2.html

http://perfumenw.blogspot.dk/2013/02/the-devil-and-his-perfumers-part-3.html

http://perfumenw.blogspot.dk/2013/05/devil-scents-round-4.html

In a related note, Dr. Covey has also written a comparison of Guerlain’s Djedi, and Esscentual Alchemy’s Hokkabaz.

In all fairness, I don’t think Amanda’s intention was to duplicate Djedi, or even come close, but rather to make a new perfume based on the same inspiration, the idea of an ancient Egyptian magician. In this sense, Hokkabaz succeeds admirably.

She hit the nail on the head.  It was one of those happy (for me) moments, when you come across a fantastic story, and you’re hooked!  A great story will always get my creative juices flowing, and provide some inspiration for my own creation.  Ellen was also kind enough to share her tiny sample of Djedi with me, so that I could do my own comparison.  I’m immensely grateful to her for that!

What would be in this fragrance???  Isn’t this a hoot

If you’re in Southern California, I’d love to invite you to FRAGments this weekend: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/147863715391069/169965586514215/

Scentual Sunday

Johann Sebastian Bach

Orchestral Suites BWV 1066-1069

The four orchestral suites – the name used by Bach was Ouverture – BWV 1066–1069 are four suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. The name ouverture refers only in part to the opening movement in the style of the French overture, in which a majestic opening section in relatively slow dotted-note rhythm in duple meter is followed by a fast fugal section in triple meter, then rounded off with a short recapitulation of the opening music. More broadly, the term was used in Baroque Germany for a suite of dance-pieces in French Baroque style preceded by such an ouverture. This genre was extremely popular in Germany during Bach’s day, and he showed far less interest in it than was usual: Robin Stowell writes that “Telemann’s 135 surviving examples [represent] only a fraction of those he is known to have written”; Christoph Graupner left 85 (listed in his Wikipedia entry); and Johann Friedrich Fasch left almost 100 (listed in his Wikipedia entry). Bach did write several other ouverture (suites) for solo instruments, notably the Cello Suite no. 5, BWV 1011, which also exists in the autograph Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995, the Keyboard Partita no. 4 in D, BWV 828, and the Overture in the French style, BWV 831 for keyboard. The two keyboard works are among the few Bach published, and he prepared the lute suite for a “Monsieur Schouster,” presumably for a fee, so all three may attest to the form’s popularity,

Scholars believe that Bach did not conceive of the four Orchestral Suites as a set (in the way he conceived of the Brandenburg Concertos), since the sources are various, as detailed below.

Suite No. 1 in C major, BWV 1066

The source is a set of parts from Leipzig in 1724–45 copied by C. G. Meissner.

1. Ouverture (metrical sign of opening section ₵; metrical sign of fugal section is the number 2 with a slash through it)
2. Courante (metrical sign of 3/2 )
3. Gavotte I/II (metrical sign is 2 with a slash through it)
4. Forlana (metrical sign is 6/4)
5. Minuet I/II (metrical sign is 3/4)
6. Bourrée I/II (metrical sign is 2 with a slash through it)
7. Passepied I/II (metrical sign is 3/4)

Instrumentation: Oboe I/II, bassoon, violin I/II, viola, basso continuo

Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067

The source is a partially autograph set of parts (Bach wrote out those for flute and viola) from Leipzig in 1738–39.

1. Ouverture (Metrical sign of opening section is C; metrical sign of fugal section is 2 with a slash through it; metrical sign of ending section, marked Lentement, is 3/4)
2. Rondeau – spelled Rondeaux by Bach – (metrical sign is ₵ )
3. Sarabande (metrical sign is 3/4), with a canon at the 12th between the flute (plus first violins) and the bass
4. Bourrée I/II (metrical sign is ₵)
5. Polonoise/ Double (metrical sign for both is 3/4); the flute part is marked “Moderato e staccato” and the first violin part “lentement” (slowly)
6. Menuet (metrical sign is 3/4)
7. Badinerie (metrical sign is 2/4). Bach, in the autograph part, spells this “Battinerie”.

Instrumentation: Solo “[Flute] traversiere” (transverse flute), violin I/II, viola, basso continuo.

The Badinerie – (literally “jesting” in French; in other works Bach used the Italian word with the same meaning, “Scherzo”) – has become a show-piece for solo flautists because of its quick pace and difficulty.

Joshua Rifkin has argued, based on in-depth analysis of the partially autograph primary sources, that this work is based on an earlier version in A minor in which the solo flute part was scored instead for solo violin. Rifkin demonstrates that notational errors in the surviving parts can best be explained by their having been copied from a model a whole tone lower, and that this solo part would venture below the lowest pitches on the flutes Bach wrote for (the transverse flute, which Bach called flauto traverso or flute traversiere). Rifkin argues that the violin was the most likely option, noting that in writing the word “Traversiere” in the solo part, Bach seems to have fashioned the letter T out of an earlier “V”, suggesting that he originally intended to write the word “violin.”  Further, Rifkin notes passages that would have used the violinistic technique of bariolage. Rifkin also suggests that Bach was inspired to write the suite by a similar work by his second cousin Johann Bernhard Bach

Flautist Stephen Zohn accepts the argument of an earlier version in A minor, but suggests that the original part may have been playable on flute as well as violin.

Oboist Gonzalo X. Ruiz has argued in detail that the solo instrument in the lost original A-minor version was the oboe, and he has recorded it in his own reconstruction of that putative original on a baroque oboe. His case against the violin is that: the range is “curiously limited” for that instrument, “avoiding the G string almost entirely,” and that the supposed violin solo would at times be lower in pitch than the first violin part, something that is almost unheard of in dedicated violin concertos. By contrast, “the range is exactly the range of Bach’s oboes”; scoring the solo oboe occasionally lower than the first violin was typical Baroque practice, as the oboe still comes through to the ear; and the “figurations are very similar to those found in many oboe works of the period.”

Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068

The source is a partially autograph set of parts from 1730; Bach wrote out the first violin and continuo parts, C.P.E. Bach wrote out the trumpet, oboe, and timpani parts, and J.S. Bach’s student Johann Ludwig Krebs wrote out the second violin and viola parts. Rifkin has argued that the original was a version for strings and continuo alone.

1. Ouverture (metrical sign is ₵ for the opening section; metrical sign is the numeral 2 for the fugal section, in which the autograph first violin part is marked “vite” (fast); metrical sign C for final section)
2. Air (metrical sign is C)
3. Gavotte I/II (metrical sign is ₵)
4. Bourrée (metrical sign is ₵)
5. Gigue (metrical sign is 6/8)

Instrumentation: Trumpet I/II/III, timpani, oboe I/II, violin I/II, viola, basso continuo.

The Air is one of the most famous pieces of baroque music. An arrangement of the piece by German violinist August Wilhelmj (1845–1908) has come to be known as Air on the G String.

Suite No. 4 in D major, BWV 1069

The source is lost, but the existing parts date from circa 1730. Rifkin has argued that the lost original version was written during Bach’s tenure at Cöthen, did not have trumpets or timpani, and that Bach first added these part when adapting the Ouverture movement for the choral first movement to his 1725 Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110 (“Our mouths are full of laughter”).

1. Ouverture (metrical sign is C for the opening section, 9/8 for the fast fugal section)
2. Bourrée I/II (metrical sign is C)
3. Gavotte (metrical sign is C)
4. Menuet I/II (metrical sign is 3/4)
5. Réjouissance (metrical sign is 3/4)

Instrumentation: Trumpet I/II/III, timpani, oboe I/II/III, bassoon, violin I/II, viola, basso continuo.

(As always all info via Wikipedia.  Thanks Wikipedia)

Wordless Wednesday

Scentual Sunday

Scentual Sunday comes to you today via a conversation I had with a dear friend on Facebook.  She’s an amazing person.  Ultra talented   Mezzo-Soprano, Perfumista, Oncology Nurse (love those special people), Writer, Mother.  And a more generous heart, I have never known.  She’s a “Kindred Spirit,” as Anne Shirley would have said. 

Music that makes you so overcome, that you can’t sing anymore.

Here’s one of mine:

Benjamin Britten’s
A CEREMONY OF CAROLS
Opus 28, for 3-part treble chorus and harp
Sung by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
Harp: Frances Kelly
Conductor: Richard Marlow
1997

03. THERE IS NO ROSE

There is no rose of such vertu [virtue]
As is the rose that bare Jesu.
Alleluia, alleluia.

For in this rose conteinèd [contained] was
Heaven and earth in litel space,
Res miranda, res miranda [marvellous things].

By that rose we may well see
There be one God in persons three,
Pares forma, pares forma [equal form],

The angels sungen the shepherds to:
Gloria in excelsis,
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Gaudeamus, gaudeamus [Let us rejoice].

Leave we all this werldly [worldly] mirth,
And follow we this joyful birth.
Transeamus, transeamus, transeamus [Let us pass over].

Alleluia, res miranda, pares forma, gaudeamus,
Transeamus, transeamus, transeamus.

Home again, Home again

Jiggety Jog

This is not my pig.

I had an amazing time on vacation!  I hadn’t realized how depleted I was, until I got home.  After Kevin’s cancer ordeal, being pregnant during the whole thing, his recovery at home, starting a new business, on top of being the loving, attachment parenting mama, and homeschooling – I was out of “go juice.”

We saw some amazing scenery, met awesome people, hung out, remembered why we started hanging out to begin with, and ate outstanding food!  Oh and we saw a pod of dolphins, and a baby sea lion rescue! 

Yummy Brussel Sprouts

Forbidden Asparagus

TIRA MI SU!

Happy People Anniversary Dinner

15 years goes by pretty fast I guess

You grow ‘em big out there in California

I have never seen a Rosemary plant so large.  Ours never get that big.  It was taller than I am!  And there was a happy lavender plant next to it

Tiny Cute Lizard

These little guys lived on, and around the Tides, where we stayed in Pismo Beach.  They would sit and eye you, and then when you went to get a little closer, they’d scurry off.

Get chocolate!

It’s not everyday there’s a chocolate sign on the wall…

Hey we made it, I’m exhausted!

That bus ride from Emeryville to Grover Beach was LONG – at from 10PM-4AM.  I was tired.  Excited for vacation though

View from our Room

There’s something very soothing about hearing the ocean constantly.  Going out to look out over the beach, and as far as the eye can see, it’s all water.  It really helps you put life in perspective.

Somewhere between Colorado and California

I just realized this trip is going backwards

Rocky Mountains

It was good for the spirit to see the ocean and mountains again.  It reminds you of what’s important.  There’s lots of “Scope for the Imagination.”

So!!!

I’m home and renewed Got a skip in my step again!

Orange Chocolate Roses Esscentual Alchemy natural botanical perfume

When I got back from vacation, this review was waiting for me in my inbox Such a lovely treat!

Ron of Notable Scents says: “This decadent treat starts off smelling like expensive orange chocolates.

I wanted to lick myself when I put it on initially – it was so vibrant and real that I had a craving to run to Godiva.”

Run over to read the rest, and my thanks to Ron for such a great review of Orange Chocolate Roses.

FRAGments – Underground, Artisan and Indie Perfume Event/Collective

Working on getting everything bottled up for FRAGments and the five fragrances I’ve selected from Esscentual Alchemy’s line.  That is A LOT of fragrance I tell you.  LOTS and LOTS.

That’s most of my news, and I hope you’re all well.

Wordless Wednesday