CHRISTMAS CHEER

A Salvation Army brass ensemble spreading Christmas cheer and collecting some donations for much needed relief this festive season.

Donate here.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

An image created from several photos (including the view from my window and some jack-o-lanters), and also some silhouettes from clipart (no, it's not a real witch!), with the help of Photoshop.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme

and also part of the Mosaic Monday meme.

Oh! And one of my songs, that suits the occasion!

LET'S HAVE MUSIC

This post is part of the Mosaic Monday meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme

And remember if you wish to hear some of my own musical compositions, you can find me under the handle: Otidorchestre

In Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Deezer, Instagram, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Boomplay, etc

MY MUSIC

Just taking an opportunity to blow my own trumpet (yes, pun intended - sorry!). Since May this year, I have been putting online some of my own musical compositions. If you like the classical music genre, you may like to have a listen. My handle is "Otidorchestre" and you can find me on these platforms:

Amazon, Anghami, MediaNet, Boomplay, Deezer, Instagram/Facebook, Adaptr, Flo, YouTube Music, iHeartRadio, Claro Música, Joox, Kuack Media, NetEase, Qobuz, Pandora, Saavn, Spotify, Tencent, Tidal and TikTok & other ByteDance stores!

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

BACH IN CHURCH

The Scots' Church, a Presbyterian church in Melbourne, Australia, was the first Presbyterian Church to be built in the Port Phillip District (now the state of Victoria). It is located in Collins Street and is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. It has been described as "an icon for well over a hundred years." The foundation stone of the first purpose built church building was laid on 22 January 1841 and it was opened on 3 October 1841.

It was designed to seat 500 and the contract sum was £2,485 without plastering, gallery, vestry or fittings. The building was opened with temporary seating. Plastering was carried out the following year, proper pews, gallery and vestry were added in 1849 and a spire some years later. The first church building was demolished partly because of concerns that the tower and spire would collapse after it developed huge cracks and became crooked. During the ministry of Rev Peter Menzies (1868–74) the building was too small for the congregation but in any case a building more suited to the site and the social position of the congregation was considered appropriate.

Construction of the current building took place between 1871 and 1874, during the ministry of Rev Irving Hetherington and his colleague Rev Peter Menzies, and was opened on 29 November 1874 with fixed seating for about 900. It was designed by Joseph Reed of the firm Reed and Barnes, and built by David Mitchell, the father of Dame Nellie Melba. Reed and Barnes also designed the Melbourne Town Hall, the State Library of Victoria, Trades Hall, the Royal Exhibition Building, the Wesley Church in Lonsdale Street, the original Presbyterian Ladies' College in East Melbourne, and Collins Street Independent Church, now St. Michael’s Uniting Church, on the opposite corner of Russell Street.

Scots' Church is in the Neo-Gothic style and built of Barrabool freestone, with dressings in Kakanui stone from New Zealand. During the last decades of the nineteenth century the spire of Scots' Church was the tallest structure in Melbourne at about 210 feet from the ground. The interior features the large stained glass window depicting the Last Supper, basalt aisle columns, timber beamed roof and an elevated floor for a good view of the pulpit.

Listening to Bach being played on the organ of this church is a breathtaking experience! Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Art of Fugue, the BrandenburgConcertos, and the Goldberg Variations, and for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Western musical canon. Here you can listen to some organ music by Bach.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme.

BUSKERS

Busking or street performance is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers.

Performances are anything that people find entertaining. Performers may do acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, caricatures, clowning, comedy, contortions, escapology, dance, singing, fire skills, flea circus, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime, living statue, musical performance, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or reciting poetry or prose, street art such as sketching and painting, street theatre, sword swallowing, and ventriloquism.

Melbourne has always had a lively busking culture, but now with the COVID lockdowns and restrictions, one is lucky to see some of these street performers somewhere. I certainly do hope that the end is in sight with this COVID pandemic, as our lives have been changed not only in major ways, but also in more subtle, but nonetheless quite significant ways.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

FED BELLS

Federation Bells is an installation comprising 39 upturned bells. Located in Birrarung Marr, Melbourne, they were created for celebrations of the centenary of Australia's federation in 2001. They were designed by Anton Hasell and Neil McLachlan in collaboration with Swaney Draper Architects.

To achieve the acoustical tuning of the bells, Behzad Keramati Nigjeh, an aerospace engineer also cooperated in this project. The bells' vibration modes were modelled and optimised using a sophisticated Finite Element software developed by Dr Joe Tomas. Federation Bells.com.au allows the public to compose music for Melbourne's Federation Bells.

Using an intuitive drag 'n' drop timeline, would-be composers can create original compositions for the bells and submit them for playing to the curator. During special events the bells are also hooked up to a MIDI keyboard the allow passersby to play the bells in real time .

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

MUSIC 3 - HAMER HALL

The Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly officially called The Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central Melbourne suburb of Southbank in Victoria, Australia. It was designed by architect Sir Roy Grounds, the masterplan for the complex (along with the National Gallery of Victoria) was approved in 1960 and construction began in 1973 following some delays. The complex opened in stages, with Hamer Hall opening in 1982 and the Theatres Building opening in 1984. The Arts Centre is located by the Yarra River and along St Kilda Road, one of the city's main thoroughfares, and extends into the Melbourne Arts Precinct, with its spire a well-known landmark of Melbourne.

Hamer Hall (formerly the Melbourne Concert Hall) is a 2,466 seat concert hall, the largest venue in the Arts Centre complex, used for orchestra and contemporary music performances. It was opened in 1982 and was later renamed Hamer Hall in honour of Sir Rupert Hamer (the 39th Premier of Victoria) shortly after his death in 2004.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

KEYS 3

In 2007, a survey found that 35% of Australian households contain at least one person who now plays a musical instrument – a statistically similar figure to the 36% found in 2001. This proportion now equates to a rough estimate of 4.25 million people (5+ yrs) who play. Of these, about 1 million people are believed to be taking private lessons.

The most popular instrument now played, according to the survey, is the acoustic guitar (by 31% of current players). The upright piano is played by a statistically equivalent proportion. The electric guitar is currently played by about 16% of players (with some acoustic overlap) and drums by some 12%. In the 2001 study, the piano was marginally ahead – a position perhaps eroded by other digital pianos and keyboards.

Music players continue to have a young profile. It was found that 37% of all players are aged 5-17 yrs and a further 24% are aged 18-34 yrs. That is, over 60% of music players fall within the 5-34 yrs age bracket – compared to about 45% of the total population (5+ yrs). In fact, there is an increasing view towards younger exposure to music – over 40% of people think this should be before the age of one year.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

VIVALDI SKIES

Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring,
roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven, 
Then they die away to silence,
and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

A BLOOMING YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

2016 was not the best of years judging from international events, wars, acts of terrorism, political upheavals and deaths of famous persons... However, looking back at my flower posts on this blog, I find some consolation in the offerings of the seasons. So, I give you my floral retrospective of the Four Seasons as I posted them.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

SUMMER

AUTUMN

WINTER

SPRING

And here are Antonio Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" with the Budapest Strings and Bela Banfalvi, Conductor:

MORE SUMMER RAIN!

We've had another rather humid and grey day today in Melbourne, with another Summer storm in the afternoon. There was lightning and thunder and of course lots of rain...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme,
and also part of the Pippa's Week That Has Been meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

And José Feliciano's "Rain" (1969) came to mind...

TOWN HALL IN TRICOLOUR

Some of Melbourne's most iconic buildings were lit up in red, white and blue on Saturday, in solidarity with France following the Paris terror attacks. The Arts Centre’s spire and the National Gallery of Victoria, the MCG and the Town Hall were illuminated in the colours of the French flag. Melbourne is echoing international cities including New York, which lit the One World Trade Centre blue, white and red to mark the horrific events that left at least 130 people dead in Paris on November 13th.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

MURAL IN BRUNSWICK

I blogged last year about the Grollo House murals in Thornbury. These fine murals were painted by the Italian artist Paola de Manincor. She passed away in 2011, but we are lucky in Melbourne to have some of her work to admire.

This mural is in Brunswick, near the corner of Sydney Rd and Glenlyon Rd, on the grounds of St Ambrose's Catholic Church, about which I blogged yesterday. It is a joyous representation of music-making and it shines with shades of blue, terracotta, green and yellow. There is a strong spirit of community and communication through the universal language of music. It was painted in 1997 and the work is signed and dated on the top right hand corner.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Monday Murals meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

ST GEORGE'S, THORNBURY

St George's Greek Orthodox Church is located 64 St David St, Thornbury, Victoria 3071. It is housed in an older church of St David, which was decommissioned and the property sold. St George's was initially housed at the corner of Martin and Armadale Streets, Thornbury. It later relocated to its current site in St. David St, which was purchased in the 1970s. Today it serves local parishioners every week.

The photos are from Good Friday immediately after the liturgy, when the faithful are adoring the Epitaphios. The Epitaphios (Greek: Ἐπιτάφιος, epitáphios, or Ἐπιτάφιον, epitáphion) is an icon, today most often found as a large cloth, embroidered and often richly adorned, which is used during the liturgies of Good Friday and Holy Saturday in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite. It also exists in painted or mosaic form, on wall or panel. The Epitaphios is also a common short form of the Epitáphios Thrēnos, the “Lamentation upon the Grave” in Greek, which is the main part of the service of the Matins of Holy Saturday, served in Good Friday evening.

In Greek churches, an elaborately carved canopy, called a “kouvouklion”, stands over the Epitaphios. This bier or catafalque represents the Tomb of Christ, and is made of wood. On Good Friday morning, the bier is decorated with spring flowers, mostly white, red, and purple, until it is covered by the flowers in its entirety. The Tomb is often sprinkled with flower petals and rosewater, decorated with candles, and ceremonially censed as a mark of respect. The bells of the church are tolled mournfully, and in traditionally Orthodox countries, flags are lowered to half-mast. Then the priest and faithful adore the Epitaphios as the choir chants hymns.

The faithful continue to visit the tomb and venerate the Epitaphios throughout the afternoon and evening, until Matins—which is usually served in the evening during Holy Week, so that the largest number of people can attend. The form which the veneration of the epitaphios takes will vary between ethnic traditions. Some will make three prostrations, then kiss the image of Christ on the Epitaphios and the Gospel Book, and then make three more prostrations. Sometimes, the faithful will crawl under the table on which the Epitaphios has been placed, as though entering into death with Christ. Others may simply light a candle and/or say a short prayer with bowed head.

In the evening, the Kouvouklion carrying the Epitaphion is carried in procession along the neighbourhood streets by the chanting priest and deacons, while the faithful follow it with lit candles. In many towns where more than one parish exists, the processions often converge to a central square, where they temporarily stop and a common Triságion psalm is sung before they resume their routes. On the island of Hydra, the Epitaphios from the Kamíni parish is brought into the sea until the bier bearers are waist-high in the water, as a special blessing for those who have perished at sea. In larger towns the procession is led by a local marching band playing funeral marches; in some cities the Epitaphios is escorted by military detachments, their arms in the mourning (muzzle towards the ground) position.

At the end of the procession, the Epitaphios is brought back to the church. Sometimes, after the clergy carry the Epitaphios in, they will stop just inside the entrance to the church, and hold the Epitaphios above the door, so that all who enter the church will pass under it (symbolically entering into the grave with Christ) and then kiss the Gospel Book. The flowers that decorated the Kouvouklion will be distributed to the faithful who will place them near the holy icons.


This post is part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

And here is the Resurrection chant, as sung by Petros Gaitanos:

KEW SYNAGOGUE

The Bet Nachman Synagogue, Walpole Street, Kew, was built in1962 by the post-war architectural partnership of Bridge, Hayden & Associates, which was established in 1956 by Arnold Ernest Bridge (1904-1980) and Anthony Abraham Hayden (1921-1984). The stained glass windows were designed by Louis Kahan (1905-2002) and installed in the synagogue in 1982.

This is a Modern Orthodox Congregation under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Stephen Boroda. The aim is to provide spiritual, cultural and social activities for the Jewish community as well as to foster and promote Jewish religious education now and into the future for both adults and children.

This post is part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

And here is Steven Isserlis playing Ravel's "Kaddish" for cello and strings:

NEWMAN COLLEGE CHAPEL

Newman College was designed by Walter Burley Griffin and was opened in 1918. Building on the Chapel began in 1938 and it was consecrated in 1942. The principal architect of the Chapel was Thomas Payne. The building of the Chapel was made possible by the generosity of Mr Patrick Brennan of Yarram, Victoria, although substantial donations had already been made by Victorian Catholics to the Archbishop Carr Memorial Chapel Fund.

It is a collegiate chapel, designed in the mediaeval style. Its architecture is 'Decorated Gothic', which flourished in fourteenth century Europe. English, French and Spanish influences are evident, and two of the carved gargoyles are of Australian fauna. The stone is from the Barrabool hills and the Hawkesbury district, and the doors are of American oak. Other special features are the high timbered roof and the six wrought iron Gothic lanterns. It has a central aisle, and capacity for 240 people. The Chapel of the Holy Spirit is a Catholic chapel. Only Catholic services may be conducted within it, and only sacred music, whether vocal and instrumental, is permitted...

81:1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

This post is part of the Psalm Sunday meme,
and also part of the Spiritual Sundays meme.

SHRINE OF REMEMBRANCE

The Shrine of Remembrance is Victoria's memorial to the men and women who have served Australia in armed conflicts and peacekeeping operations throughout our nation's history.

One of Melbourne's iconic buildings, the Shrine draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, to remember, to contemplate, to admire or to visit as tourists. It is a place where all can come to learn about the service and sacrifice of Australian service men and women. The Shrine welcomes all visitors to enjoy their visit to the memorial and respects the cultural diversity of its visitors.

The Shrine of Remembrance was built between July 1928 and November 1934 in remembrance of the 114,000 men and women of Victoria who served and those who died in the Great War of 1914-1918 - 89,100 of them served overseas and 19,000 did not return.

The design for the Shrine of Remembrance was selected by competition among Australian artists and architects. Eighty-three designs were submitted and the winning design was by two Melbourne returned-soldier architects, Philip Hudson and James Wardrop.The inspiration for the external outline came from one of the seven wonders of the ancient world - the mausoleum at Harlicarnassus to Mausolus, King of Caria in South West Asia Minor.

On this Remembrance Day, Lest we Forget, here is an apt extract from Psalm 79:
2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven,
the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.3. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem;
and there was none to bury them.

This post is part of the Psalm Sunday meme,
and also part of the Spiritual Sunday meme,
and also part of the Scenic Sunday meme.