Music of the Baroque
Today, Saturday August 7, we explore the music of the Baroque era. We’ll be including the work of a wide range of composers. Many will be familiar; other perhaps less so; or they may have written pieces that we know well but have no idea of who composed them — for example English composer Thomas Arne, who wrote Rule Britannia but also a range of other pieces which deserve more interest than is usually paid to them. And on this occasion we are also exploring a range of works by J S Bach — some well-known and others less familiar.
Then at 12 noon and 4pm Pacific / 8pm or midnight UK time, there’s another chance to hear Episode 13 of “Where’ve You Been?”, our twice-monthly show on places to visit and things to do around the Second Life Grid. This time we’re paying a return visit to the Second Life Endowment for the Arts (SLEA), focusing on the nearly-completed Bridge Project. You’ll find more details here. And every four hours from 4am Pacific/noon in the UK, tune in for “The Engines of Our Ingenuity”, from the University of Houston, about the machines that make our civilization run and the people whose ingenuity created them.
The Black Mass 25: Oh, Mirror, Mirror by Nigel Kneale
Join us on Friday at a little after 12 noon or 4pm Pacific time for another episode in the landmark radio drama series The Black Mass, created by the late Erik Bauersfeld and his colleagues at the Pacifica radio station KPFA in Berkeley, California, over fifty years ago. In 30 chilling tales of mystery, imagination and the human mind, The Black Mass brings you some of literature’s most haunting stories, by masters of the craft — many of whom are best-known in other fields. Our thanks as always to John Whiting, producer of many of these recordings, and of course to Erik Bauersfeld himself. Today’s programme was originally broadcast on February 12, 1964.
Note that the episode will not start until the track playing at the top of the hour has finished, so the actual start time of the episode will be a few minutes after the hour.
Today: Oh, Mirror, Mirror by Nigel Kneale
Tarot @ Teatime 12 — About the Rider Waite Smith Deck
Thursday 4 August debuts the first broadcast of Episode 12 of our popular series, “Tarot @ Teatime”, with Honey Heart and Willow Moonfire, exploring the history of the cards and how they may be read. Tune in to http://main.vcradio.org at noon or 4pm Pacific / 8pm or midnight UK time. This episode will repeat on Sunday.
Episode Twelve
In Episode 12, Honey and Willow explore the history behind the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck.
This deck, originally published during 1909, is widely considered the most popular tarot deck for tarot card reading. The cards were drawn by illustrator Pamela Colman Smith from the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite and were originally published by the Rider Company. The deck has been published in numerous editions and inspired a wide array of variants and imitations. It is estimated that more than 100 million copies of the deck exist in more than 20 countries.
Where’ve You Been 13: The SLEA Bridge Project
Wednesday, August 4th sees the premiere of a brand new episode in our series “Where’ve You Been?”, where we look at things to do and places to see in and around the Second Life Grid.
In Episode 13 we visit The Bridge Project, at the Second Life Endowment for the Arts (SLEA).
The Early Music Show
Tune in to Virtual Community Radio today, Wednesday August 4th, for a programme of Early Music – today featuring music of the High Renaissance, with contributions from France, Spain, England and Germany. There are also some modern interpretations thrown in for good measure.
New Shows on Mixcloud: Tarot @ Teatime 11 and Where’ve You Been 12
We’re pleased to announce the addition of two new programmes to our Mixcloud “Listen Again” facility. Listen to them now at https://www.mixcloud.com/virtualcommunityradio/
“Where’ve You Been” Episode 12 features The Borderless Project, an interactive digital art exhibition that explores light: reflections, structures, movement, creation and evolution. .
“Tarot @ Teatime” Episode 11 explores several classic Tarot spreads and how to read them.
Saturday At The Movies
Today, join us for a programme of music from the movies, today featuring videogames and more.
Movies are where most people today hear orchestral music, and there will be plenty of that today. But movie music is a much broader field than that, and today you’ll hear music from the movies of many different kinds, from the very start of the genre (with Camille Saint-Saens) to the latest blockbusters; from orchestral music to rock, to Fifties songs. There is a slight bias towards fantasy and SF movies, but never mind, we all need a bit of an escape these days.…
Today we’ll be featuring music from The Elder Scrolls V — Skyrim: a classic game soundtrack from Jeremy Soule.
The Black Mass 24: Oil of Dog by Ambrose Bierce
Join us on Friday at a little after 12 noon or 4pm Pacific time for another episode in the landmark radio drama series The Black Mass, created by the late Erik Bauersfeld and his colleagues at the Pacifica radio station KPFA in Berkeley, California, over fifty years ago. In 30 chilling tales of mystery, imagination and the human mind, The Black Mass brings you some of literature’s most haunting stories, by masters of the craft — many of whom are best-known in other fields. Our thanks as always to John Whiting, producer of many of these recordings, and of course to Erik Bauersfeld himself. Today’s programme was originally broadcast on March 4, 1964.
Note that the episode will not start until the track playing at the top of the hour has finished, so the actual start time of the episode will be a few minutes after the hour.
Today: Oil of Dog by Ambrose Bierce
Hits In Hi-Fi
Today we’ll take a nostalgic journey back to the 1950s and 1960s and beyond, when music was on vinyl (don’t touch the playing surface!) and home audio was new and excitingly futuristic… with Hits In Hi-Fi.
In the early days of stereo, a significant number of albums were released that were designed especially to show off the wonders of this new way of presenting musical entertainment. Sounds “ping-ponged” across the stereo soundstage; instruments appeared hard on one side and then hard on the other… and there were a lot of space references, bloops and bleeps starting and ending the pieces — and once the Moog Synthesiser became available, that was included in the mix too.
Entente Cordiale
It’s Saturday 24 July, and today we are pleased to present a selection of classical music from Britain and France.
In fact the emphasis is somewhat more on the French, but we’ll be hearing from a number of British composers such as Elgar, Vaughan Williams and of course Frederic Delius, who, while born in England, spent the latter part of his life across the Channel.
From the French side we will be featuring Poulenc, Fauré, Chopin (who was Polish born but became a French citizen) Debussy, Ravel and Berlioz, with performances both traditional and not so.
We also have a selection of “cross-channel” pieces in a somewhat lighter vein.
Today you can also hear the latest edition of “Where’ve You Been?” — details here — where we visit The Borderless Project’s amazing art installation, at 12 noon or 4pm Pacific / 8pm or midnight in the UK — and don’t miss “Engines of Our Ingenuity” — presented by the University of Houston: the series about the machines that make our civilization run and the people whose ingenuity created them. The programme is broadcast every 4 hours from 4am Pacific.
