Thursday, March 25, 2010

"狐狸先生的尾巴" 與六四事件有關?

不知到是誰 "發掘到" 的. 我就覺可信性很微.

I just read on Wikipedia that 夢劇院's song, "狐狸先生的尾巴" was written in reference to the Tiananmen Square Massacre on the morning of June 4th, 1989. I went on Google and tried to find more references to determine if there was any credibility to the claim. I couldn't find any primary sources, such as interview quotes or commentary by media journalists or critics. All I found were people referring to this connection, yet providing no evidence to prove this theory.

I've been listening to this song since the album was first released in 1989. I remember I bought it at around Christmas time. From June 4th to December, that's a mere 6 months. Knowing how long it takes for an album to be written, recorded, mixed and then published, I think six months is rather a short period of time for Paradox (夢劇院) to have done all this. Another thing is Paradox only released one album per year that had completely new songs on it. In between each album, they would release a remix LP. Erica Lee and Yvonne Lau wrote their own lyrics, and they were full-time university students at the time, so that means it would have likely taken them nearly a year to write the lyrics for a full-length album. Hence, the timing just doesn't seem plausible.

One thing about timing that does help this claim is that they probably would have done a lot of the work on their albums during the summer when they had vacation time. But, that's stretching it.

If you look at the lyrics closely, they don't seem to match up entirely with the claim that the song is referencing the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Let me go through it.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

My Favourite Works of Classical Music

Favourite Pieces of All Time

1. The Enigma Variations, Op. 36, by Sir Edward Elgar
My favourite variations are Nimrod, W.M.B. and Troyte, in that order. It is one of the most dramatic pieces of music I've ever heard.

2. Vocalise, by Sergei Rachmaninov
My favourite rendition of this vocal piece is by American opera singer, Renee Fleming. I have heard numerous other versions by other singers, but Ms. Fleming's is the best. The orchestral version is also very nice.

3. The Moonlight Sonata, by Ludwig Van Beethoven
My dad once told me that Beethoven wrote this piece to show a blind girl how beautiful moonlight looks. After researching on my own, I found that this isn't true, but I like it more than all the more plausible stories of this piece's origin.

4. Rêverie, L 68, by Claude Debussy
I first heard this piece when the Great Gordeeva and Grinkov skated to it as an exhibition number at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. I now have all three versions: violin & harp, piano, and orchestra.

5. Cello Concerto in E Minor, Op. 85, by Sir Edward Elgar
My favourite rendition of this piece is by Jacqueline Du Pre. I have spent some time listening to other versions by other cellists, but Du Pre's version is my favourte because of how she plays the opening of the first movement: Adagio - Moderato. When she goes from the low note immediately the high note, it's the most dramatic of all the version's I've heard.