Photo: Eva Rinaldi
Already checked out our Hear the Music playlist for February 2016? Want to hear even more music that relates to what we covered in the issue? We thought you’d never ask! First, our streaming audio playlist. We draw from our Music Notes section for Tracks 1-3, with contributions by Ed Sheeran, Joanna Newsom, and Taylor Swift (pictured above). Tracks 4-9 are all by significant Illinoisans, including two 2016 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Chicago and Cheap Trick. Tracks 10-15 celebrate the work of Allen Toussaint, including several songs he wrote and/or produced for other artists. And Track 16, from the second scene of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold, features the Wagner tuba in all its glory; you can hear four of them at the beginning of the track, playing the stirring “Valhalla” theme in close harmony. (For more related to the Wagner tuba, scroll down.)
And here’s a video bonus: In this clip, members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra’s brass section explain and demonstrate Wagner’s use of leitmotifs (recurring themes that stand for a person, place, or thing) in his cycle of operas known as The Ring of the Nibelung, or simply The Ring. About 3:50 in, the Wagner tuba is discussed, but you can also see it being played right at the start in (what else?) the “Valhalla” motif.