Tag: music

A Musical Zodiac: Interview with the Composer

by Christina • September 16, 2016

Since music and astrology are in some senses soul-sisters, it’s surprising (perhaps) that so little music based on our cosmic art has been written in the classical tradition. So it’s hugely satisfying that award-winning composer, visiting professor at the Royal College of Music, conductor and all round music maven Debbie Wiseman has filled this lacuna with a luscious, imaginative Musical Zodiac. This is a sequence of sound portraits in the classical tradition — like Elgar’s Enigma Variations — with one song for each sign from Aries to Pisces. Wiseman talked to The Oxford Astrologer last week and gave a little insight into the evolution of the work. […]

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A Musical Zodiac (Tonight)

by Christina • September 9, 2016

A Musical Zodiac, composed and conducted by Debbie Wiseman (with sleeve notes by Jonathan Cainer). Launched September 16. A crab yearns for the moon, a seamstress stitches in a pool of sunlight, twins play — Debbie Wiseman’s musical character sketches of the signs of the Zodiac are powerful, delicate, acute. From the weaving complexity of Gemini evoked by violin and cello to the heat and power of Leo the Lion, from the shimmering otherworldliness of the Fishes to the civilised balance of Libra, Wiseman creates a Zodiac of sound. Wiseman was commissioned last autumn to write a 12-part suite by […]

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In the Key of Gemini: Charles Aznavour

by Christina • May 22, 2016

In his long, long musical career, the great French balladeer Charles Aznavour has written hundreds of songs and recorded thousands. His Sun is at 0° Gemini, the sign of the songsmith. “I can write on any subject. Just give me the first line, which is the most important.” Aznavour will turn 92 on May 22. His last tour was in 2014, and his first American musical is being staged this spring; he started work at the age of nine. That is quite the career! Yes, he has hard-working Capricorn Rising, and its ruler Saturn is the most elevated planet. He also has his […]

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In the Key of Pisces: Elizabeth Maconchy

by Christina • March 21, 2016

Dame Elizabeth Machonchy was hailed as a girl-wonder at the age of 23 and then told she had only a few years to live. However, she beat TB and went on to live a long and full life. I don’t have the time of birth, but I note the conjunction of Chiron and Venus. Her husband devotedly nursed and nurtured her out of TB. Also Sun-Saturn makes for a survivor. The mysterious atmosphere of her music must be connected to the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Cancer opposite Uranus in Capricorn. This is, of course, a generational combo, and without a birth […]

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In the Key of Pisces: Nat King Cole

by Christina • March 17, 2016

Nat King Cole… perfect phrasing, casual grace, immortal. Cole was an outstanding jazz pianist who just happened to be able to sing — to start with. Of course, it’s his gorgeous voice for which he’ll be remembered — and indeed he has a packed second house, which we might associate with voice, and Venus, the planet of beauty, in the third house of communications. This is a Cardinal chart — Capricorn Rising, a host of planets in Aries, and the Moon in Libra. Cardinal signs are leaders, innovators and pioneers. Indeed, Cole was a unique person — the first black host […]

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In the Key of Pisces: Astor Piazzolla

by Christina • March 16, 2016

Thanks to Rachel for suggesting Astor Piazzolla, the late great Argentinian maestro of tango. Loss, plangent longing, melancholy love — so romantic — that’s one side of Piazolla’s work. Uncompromisingly avant-garde, experimental and cutting edge — there’s an utterly different side too. Piazzolla was a composer and multi-intrumentalist, but the sound he’s most associated with is that of the bandoneon — a kind of accordion that’s essential to the distinctive tango sound. Interestingly, like James Taylor, he has a powerful Mercury-Uranus contact, and again he has incredible speed and dexterity. But his musical choices are also so daring, so revolutionary. He mixes jazz […]

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In the Key of Pisces: James Taylor

by Christina • March 16, 2016

James Taylor’s soft, reedy baritone is so sweet and his melody-weaving so certain, his lyrics so perfectly distilled and his phrasing so effortless — he truly was blessed by the gods of music and song. Indeed, his first album, which included classics like Carolina in My Mind and Rainy Day Man was cut when he was just 20 in 1968: his most recent, just last year. But like Orpheus, Taylor had to pay a price for his talent. Taylor had real demons to contend with including wobbly mental health as a teenager (he committed himself several times) and subsequently years of heroin addiction. Making music probably saved him; once his […]

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Kesha’s Saturn Return

by Christina • March 14, 2016

Los Angeles will eat you. The LA music biz specialises in packaging young girls into pop stars — Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Nicky Minaj, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears. The singer-songwriter Kesha is one of those. Spotted by producer Dr Luke at the age of 17, she was persuaded by him to drop out of high school and move to LA. But it was not until 2010, that Kesha, autotuned and “sexified”, had a hit with a song she wrote, Tik Tok, and the subsequent album, Animal. Her second album Warrior was just as successful — as were her tours. The persona she […]

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In The Key Of Pisces: Answers To Pavane

by Christina • March 11, 2016

Sviatoslav Richter is the Pisces at the slowest tempo. Richter has Mercury, Mars and Jupiter in a tight stellium in Pisces. Taurus Moon. Samson Francois has a Taurus Sun with Venus-Pluto conjunction in Cancer training his Scorpio Moon which opposes the Sun — emotionally intense and rather dark. His Moon is exactly opposite Richter’s and possibly Simon’s. Abbey Simon has Sun in Capricorn flanked widely by Mercury and Venus in the same sign. Venus opposes Pluto in Cancer. Moon is in Taurus — again. It’s an interesting chart, very well distributed planets.

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In The Key Of Pisces: Maurice Ravel & An Astro-Musical Quiz

by Christina • March 10, 2016

The composer, Maurice Ravel, was born on March 7, 1875 into a musical family in the town of Ciboure, where the River Nivelle meets the Atlantic Ocean in the Basque country. (We are catching up with some missed dates for In The Key Of Pisces…) He was an innovator and a rebel. Rejected by the establishement in his youth, by the time of his death, he was acknowledged to be France’s greatest living composer. You might expect that with Uranus on the Midheaven. He was also an experimenter. Bolero, one of his most famous compositions, is all about repetition — a rather Piscean […]

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