New Scaratings

Perhaps with a neurotoxin? Or a trans-uranium element? Those fun-loving Russians seem to have found their way around Finland, and settled into England. I urge you to support the Mueller investigations, which are being conducted with a legal staff, as last reported to me, only one tenth the size of Kenneth Starr's, when he was investigating the question of whether Bill Clinton stuck a cigar up Monica Lewinsky's butt.



Never a fan of atonal, or 12-tone programmatic music, and much influenced by Osmo Vanska (pronounced Venska), the Finnish conductor of the Minnesota orchestra, I'm happy to report that Finnish composers are at the leading edge of traditional, tonal, orchestral music. A tip of the cap to Estonia: Aarvo Part (say Pairt), a minimalist of sublime beauty, was hugely influential on his neighbors to the north, across the Gulf of Finland. The Fins alone are generating more first-class orchestral music than we conservative consumers of this entertainment are capable of digesting.

I need to mark this entry with what in German are known as umlauts. Is there a two-stroke method to import them into New Scaratings? The first "a" in Vanska and the "a" in Part should both be so marked. You know, that little double period thing over the "a"?

To GONE D: Yes, I agree that Estonian Arvo Part [pronounced "Pairt"] has gone back to the essentials of music: rhythm, melody and harmony in tonal music. Perhaps his most famous and deservedly popular composition is "Spiegel im Spiegel" = "Mirrors in the Mirror" which anyone can listen to/watch on various YouTube performances. Another modern composition worth knowing is by Poland's Henryk Gorecki [pronounced "Goretzky"]; it's his Symphony No. 3 "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs". Three movements, all slow!!! Highly recommended are the last 2 movements. Soprano Dawn Upshaw made this 1976 composition deservedly popular. It may be available on YouTube. Then buy the CDs and listen on a high quality stereo system!!!!
People vote with their dollars, and you will note that the number of atonal compositions bought at www.archivmusic.com (I may have misspelled www.archivemusic.com ) is negligible.

ANd what incongruous hobby do many Finns pursue, so much so that CbS once did a 60 Minutes segment on the fact?

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Merkin

Wife carrying?

That sounds logical.

Thanks for the recommendations, REACH. I often spend some portion of a Saturday morning blind-surfing YouTube. Tomorrow I can pursue that indulgence with a sense of direction.

Good answer but not the one 60 Minutes featured.

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Merkin