He’s not a king. He’s a dictator. Get it right!

Update 5: 31 March 2026: Some nuts are calling for a draft for Iran for troops on the ground. The dictator’s son, Barron, should be amongst the first to go in a draft. Seems only right. Although one of the requirements for being a “maga” is chronic hypocrisy. Think JD, for example.

Update 4: 30 March 2026: A headline on Al Jazeera, “tr*mp says wants to take Iran’s oil.” So that’s the real reason for the US dictator’s terrorist attacks on Iran. To steal their oil. To steal their natural resources. He thinks he’s entitled to go around the world stealing the natural resources of other sovereign nations. He’s already said that Cuba is next. When may we expect regime change in the US? (And I’m not talking about through any elections).

Update 3: 29 March 2026: I read some of the “demands” that the US has for Iran for ending the US and Israel’s terrorist attacks on Iran. When is the hypocritical US going to do the same that they’re demanding of Iran, such as promising to never have a nuclear weapon when the US has an entire stockpile of them, AND the US is the only insane and barbaric nation on Earth to have ever used nuclear weapons on a civilian population. Such hypocrisy. These people are trash. No nation should have nuclear weapons, but since they do, why shouldn’t Iran have nuclear weapons? The US regime would say: “But they are religious nuts in Iran.” And you aren’t?! How is Iran different than the fake-Christian religious nuts/fanatics of the regime in the white house? Iran has never attacked the US but the US and Israel are responsible for attacking Iran with their barbaric terrorist attacks. These gutter trash (the dictator and his incompetent cabinet) are blind to their own hypocrisy.

Update 2: 29 March 2026: So I just read that that Hypocrite piece of work JD Vance is favoured for being US president in 2028 by a major conservative group which shall remain nameless. Online, I have read that most people can’t stand JD. He had called the dictator “America’s Hitler” and then deleted that after he was chosen as vp. He’s as racist as they all are, despite having a wife of Indian ancestry. He did a complete 180 after being chosen as vp. I also read that more people are “feeling comfortable” with that Latino who hates other Latinos: Marco Rubio. With all the hate for Latinos that has been spewed in the US, why would anyone vote for a Latino? But why would anyone think that the dictator is leaving in 2028? Who builds a (now $400 Million USD) gigantic gaudy and tacky ballroom — which is supposed to be bigger than the white house — and leaves? Who “renovates”/demolishes the Kennedy Center and changes the name of the place and then leaves? And the dictator has made many references to his plans of not going anywhere. There’s no one to make him leave. He’s talked about running for a third term and his “maga” cultists in congress are fine with that despite it violating the US Constitution, which has become irrelevant under this regime. So isn’t all of this talk about future candidates for that office irrelevant? I think so. Just like the talk about the 2026 midterms. I’m not at all convinced they will happen considering all the comments the dictator has made about “why do we need elections considering all I have accomplished?” as one example. Then the Republican “maga” Cultists are talking about stationing ICE around polling places — that’s if the midterms are not cancelled — plus the dictator has done several things already to make it more and more difficult for people to vote or have the right to vote. He wants mail-in voting gone even though the dictator/hypocrite just used it himself for the Florida election. Will there be midterms? I’ll believe it when I see them. End of Update 2.

Update 1: 29 March 2026:

Fascism = regime, not “administration”.

My observations before and during the “No Dictator” rallies:

Why are people who oppose this heinous, fascist and dictatorial regime en la casa blanca/in the white house still referring to this regime as “the administration?” The word “administration” sanitises who and what they are: a lawless and septic regime, yet I see the word “administration” used on a regular basis on so-called “progressive” websites. I hear so-called “progressives” using the word “administration.” The word “administration” implies a democracy (which we are no longer). It implies, “business as usual” which is not at all what this fascist regime is about. I expect the corporate media to use the sanitised word “administration” but not the people who took part in the No Dictator rallies. In fascism the appropriate and correct word is regime. Get it right! Also, why is the opposition still referring to this war criminal dictator in the white house as “president [surname]” and when they write it they use a capital “P” which denotes respect. That gives this piece of gutter trash respect. This LOSER has done nothing to earn anyone’s respect. He’s absolute garbage. Clearly, some of the opposition are still not clear on the concept apparently. And some probably never will get it.

End of Update.

One writer online understands that the 34-count convicted felon and rapist is a dictator. Ralph Nader wrote: Quote: This weekend, the “No Kings” rallies (he’s already a dictator) anticipate 10 million people nationwide. End Quote.

I don’t think the organisers of this event will ever get it right.  The chronic liar and insane nut in the white house — he’s also the 34-count convicted felon and rapist/adjudicated sexual pervert assaulter (he said, “grab ’em by the pussy”) of the Epstein “beef jerky” Class — is a dictator. He’s installing fascism and a dictatorship in the US, and he’s doing so quite easily.  His Republican Party-“maga” Cult and the Dead Democratic Party/Cult are obviously quite comfortable with a 34-count convicted felon being their messiah and living in a fascist dictatorship under him. One of his strongest cheerleaders is that piece of fascist trash who despises the US Constitution, Mike Johnson, (the speaker of the house who often has fake amnesia when asked questions about topics he pretends to know nothing about. Nearly all Republicans and some Democrats seem comfortable with their dictator being above the law.  They have no respect for the US Constitution or the rule of law.  The US Constitution only applies to some Democrats when they are in power.  And I would like to point out that nearly all of these Republican cultists pretend to be Christians.  They are fake Christians, Christian frauds.  The Republican Cult’s chronic hypocrisy is duly noted.

[Disclosure:  I’m not a Democrat.  I’m non-partisan, an independent.]

This is really not that difficult, people.  But yet the seemingly dense organisers of the “No kings” protests can’t seem to get it right, and for the third time now.  I’m not hopeful they ever will get it right.  They’re doing another one of their feel-good, group therapy sessions this weekend, living under delusions that they will change something with this despicable and lawless regime.

Obviously, the organisers of these “No Kings” protests didn’t do any “homework” or research before coming up with the (wrong) name for their demonstrations/protests.  Whereas it took me about 2 seconds to find the following information per AI.  Don’t these “No kings” people have any search engine skills whatsoever?  Here’s what I’m talking about:

From AI:

Fascism is an authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology that inherently requires a dictator or one-party state to enforce its goals. It relies on violence, surveillance, and propaganda to eliminate political opposition, control society, and achieve national rejuvenation.

Key connections between fascism and dictatorship include:

All-Powerful Leadership: Fascist movements focus on a single leader (e.g., Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy) who holds absolute power, often built through a cult of personality.

Totalitarianism: Fascist regimes strive for total state control over public and private life, aiming to dismantle democratic institutions and freedoms.

Militarism and Violence: Fascism glorifies war and utilizes state-sanctioned violence (e.g., Italy’s [Blackshirts] to suppress dissenters, trade unions, and political opponents, particularly communists and socialists.

National Regeneration: Fascist dictatorships promote an “us vs. them” narrative, scapegoating minorities and foreigners to unify the nation through hatred and expansionist ambitions.

Note: While fascism is inherently dictatorial, not all dictatorships are strictly fascist.

So the white house occupant is a dictator, not a king, and he is installing fascism.  The word “king” really sanitises what he’s doing and how dangerous he is, and makes him sound quite benign.

A hereditary monarchy is a form of government where: the monarch (king, queen, or emperor) belongs to a single, ruling family, passing the throne down through generations, typically to the eldest child. This system aims to create stability, with the next ruler known beforehand, often based on primogeniture.

Think of the British Royal Family for example.  Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III did not and have not installed fascism there.

The dictator in the white house is the only member of his family to hold political office, so there is no hereditary family lineage that exists in the US government.

Therefore, as for the piece of stupid and chronically lying gutter trash in the oval office:

He’s no king.  He’s a lawless dictator.  Get it right, people!

And how is it possible that a 34-count convicted felon and rapist/an adjudicated sexual pervert predator assaulter can be turned into a cultist deity for so many stupid people and he becomes a cult idol for them just because he had a reality television show?  He even gets in the white house because of stupid people, and many world “leaders” fall all over this convicted felon because they are terrified of him because he acts like a third-grade schoolyard bully. Always threatening someone, chest-beating with bravado. He’s the scum of the Earth.

This can not be overstated:  All this for a 34-count convicted felon and rapist/adjudicated sexual pervert predator (“grab ’em by the pussy”) of The Epstein Class.  This piece of gutter trash, this war criminal, is being treated like a deity. Insanity.

I’ve never seen someone so stuck on themselves as this village idiot dictator in the white house:

Some examples:  All the paper money printed from now on will have his kindergarten-style scribbling “signature” on it, which is a first for someone in that office who is still (unfortunately) living. 

Something to consider: Don’t most people use a debit card or credit card these days? I think so. At least in San Francisco they do. In which case, most people will never see any US currency, so it’s really a very outdated idea which is what he’s about: living in the past or what he calls “The Golden Age” (think: 1940s and 1950s, nazi Deutschland). He was talking about what an “honour” it would be to have a statue of his septic self in Venezuela.  And a coin is coming out with his oversized puss on it where he looks like (from the image I saw) an angry dictator on the coin.

Some of his cultist trash in the US congress want the Palm Beach Airport renamed after him.  I have no doubt that Washington National Airport (which is really in Arlington Virginia) across the Potomac from the District of Columbia will be renamed with his name on it.  It already has Reagan’s name on it (in front of Washington’s) which I never acknowledge.  A convicted felon is deserving of all this clearly shows a world of insanity.

The Index Finger Regime

Has anyone else noticed the index finger obsession with the convicted felon/dictator and the other trash in his “maga” regime?  I was taught that it’s rude to point at people.  But these trash are always rudely pointing at people or pointing in some direction, especially the dictator.  It’s like a trademark for them. If he’s not pointing at someone, he’s waving at imaginary people where there’s no one there.

The US dictator said about Charlottesville:  There are good people on both sides.  Really?  One of the sides was the nazis/white supremacists.  And considering all the racist comments and racism he has expressed, I have to ask:  Is he a semi-closeted nazi or is he a fascist?  Which one?

Nazism is a specific, extreme form of fascism. While both are far-right, totalitarian, and anti-democratic ideologies, Nazism is distinct for its obsessive focus on racism, biological determinism, and the Holocaust. Fascism focuses primarily on the state, while Nazism uses the state to achieve racial purity.

Related:

Keir Starmer’s policy on the Iran war is a recipe for catastrophe

US talking to itself, says Iran as tr*mp claims wheels of diplomacy turning

What will happen to the Kennedy Center’s Pipe Organ?

Well, unless someone stops this lawless, 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert assaulter (“grab ’em by the pussy”) dictator of The Epstein Class — and I don’t know who that would be since he has no respect for judges/the judicial system (unless they rule in his favour) — I assume the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall pipe organ will be destroyed in the LOSER’s/dictator’s demolition project, assuming that is allowed to proceed, and assuming he guts the place.  As for The Epstein Class, don’t forget about “beef jerky” and we’re not talking here about what you normally think of as beef jerky.

With the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For the Performing Arts demolition, this dictator/war criminal has talked about keeping some of the steel structure and some of the marble of the building.  I wouldn’t think that he even knows that there is a pipe organ in the Concert Hall, nor would he care about that.  I’m not aware he’s ever been to a performance in the Concert Hall.  This insane nut knows nothing about music, the arts or a performing arts center, or anything else for that matter, it’s not just music.

A large local church in the District, Maryland or Virginia (DMV) might be interested in buying this nice pipe organ, but considering how this vile dictator recklessly destroyed the east wing of the white house without any consequences, I suspect the organ will be disrespected and destroyed too, and treated the same way, if it is his intent to demolish the Concert Hall or the whole building and start over, slap his puss on the new building and call it “[His full name] Entertainment Center, ” which is the language he has used.  The guy is obviously a nut, off-the-latch to be so obsessed with having his name on as many buildings and things as possible.  He’s like the village idiot.

The new president whom the dictator appointed of the Kennedy Center comes from a construction background — WTF? — having nothing to do with music or the performing arts.  Well, it’s just like his thoroughly unqualified for-the-job cabinet and vp choice.  They are all his cultists and deeply reside in his upper colon.  As long as they are devout “maga” trash/cultists, that’s all that matters to him.  They don’t need to know anything about the job he puts them in.  All they need to do is to worship and glorify him.

The Concert Hall is located at the south end of the Kennedy Center, opposite the Eisenhower Theater which is at the north end.  The Concert Hall is on the far left (south) end of the Grand Foyer, past the Millennium Stage.

A judge has been asked to stop the dictator’s plans and keep the Kennedy Center open and intact.

From what I’ve read, there’s nothing wrong with the Kennedy Center in its current state:

“It’s perfect,” said former National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) artistic advisor Ben Folds who resigned after the dictator’s takeover.  From the images I’ve seen of the Kennedy Center, it looks like it did when I performed there over the three years with Norman Scribner’s Choral Arts Society of Washington (NSO) and Dr. Paul Traver’s University of Maryland Chorus (NSO), other than they have since renovated the Concert Hall.

I’m not hot on the renovated Concert Hall, especially the stage area.  They obviously have sound problems because of that mess — the high-tech acoustical canopy — above the stage area which covers up half of the organ pipes.  The Filene Center Organ on the original stage looked so much better (see link down the page; I tried to embed that image but they wouldn’t allow me to do that).

From AI:

“The original Filene organ, installed in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in 1972, was replaced by a new 5,000-pipe Casavant Frères organ in 2012. Named the Rubenstein Family Organ, the current instrument features 4,972 pipes, a “Filene Stop” honoring the original, and weighs 20 tons, providing superior sound for the National Symphony Orchestra.”

Key Details of the New Organ (that replaced the Filene):

  • Manufacturer: Casavant Frères of St-Hyacinthe, Québec.
  • Installed: 2012 (replaced the 1972 Filene organ, which was deemed unrepairable, in part, due to water that got into the organ pipes; the flat roof leaked at one time).
  • Pipes & Structure: Roughly 5,000 pipes, ranging from 0.625 inches to 32 feet long, weighing 20 tons.
  • The “Filene Stop”: The new organ incorporates 61 pipes from the original Filene Organ to honor the original donor, Catherine Filene Shouse.
  • Performance: The organ can reach 150 decibels, designed to balance with a full orchestra.

About the Original Filene Organ:

  • Built: It was the final instrument constructed by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston.
  • Installation: Installed in 1972, shortly after the Kennedy Center opened.
  • Fate: It was dismantled and replaced in 2012 after being deemed unsalvageable in 2008.

When I performed there, I don’t remember hearing anything about any sound problems, even if they existed.

When I was in Margaret Hillis’s and later Vance George’s San Francisco Symphony Chorus, I did hear musicians of the San Francisco Symphony say that they couldn’t hear each other in the newly built Davies Symphony Hall, and they added adjustable transparent sound shields above the stage which I think they raised, lowered and tilted for the sound, which look nothing like the mess above the stage in the Kennedy Center.

One wonders why they didn’t try to emulate Boston’s Symphony Hall which supposedly has superb acoustics — amongst the best in the world — and I think that’s why they’ve not done a major renovation job on BSH, because why mess with something that is not broken?  Boston Symphony Hall looks somewhat outdated compared to the newly renovated Kennedy Center Concert Hall or Davies Symphony Hall, but if the sound is superb, leave Symphony Hall as it is.

From AI:

“Boston Symphony Hall (built 1900) is globally renowned for having some of the finest acoustics for orchestral music, frequently ranked alongside the Musikverein in Vienna. Its “shoebox” design, designed by acoustician Wallace Clement Sabine, achieves a perfect 2.0-second reverberation time, offering immense clarity and resonant, warm sound from every seat.”
My choral friend added this:  “It says BSH is renowned for having some of the finest acoustics for orchestral music.  What about symphonic choral music?  Maybe that’s why the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC) sounds the way they do.  I said:  Nah, I don’t think it’s the Hall, but rather the Chorus.  Chorus Conductor James Burton can only do so much with what he has to work with and who auditions for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.  I wonder if he regrets leaving the UK and taking that job in Boston?
Someone wrote me awhile back and said he had heard the TFC recently, and they sound the same way they did when I was complaining about them.  Well that’s a shame, but I’m not surprised.
BTW, James had superb Choruses in the UK.  I guess he was hoping he could do the same work with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.  Yeah well.  It doesn’t always work out that way.   (Related:  Tangling with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus).
From AI:
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is actively engaged in long-term preservation and renovation efforts for Symphony Hall, which include ongoing improvements to patron facilities and infrastructure.
As of 2026, the BSO has a master plan focused on “Places,” aimed at renovating and preserving Symphony Hall and other physical assets, bolstered by recent fundraising and grants for deferred maintenance.
Key Renovation & Improvement Details:
  • Infrastructure & Facade: Recent projects include repairs to the masonry facade, roofing, and granite steps at the Huntington Avenue entrance.
  • Interior Upgrades: Previous renovations have included replacing the performance stage floor, restoring clerestory windows to allow natural light, and upgrading seating.
  • Patron Amenities: Renovations have upgraded patron lounges, bars, restrooms, and corridors to improve the visitor experience.
Adjacent Construction (Symphony Station):

Separate from the hall’s internal renovations, the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) is planning a major, multi-year accessibility project for the adjacent Symphony Station, with construction currently scheduled to begin in 2026 or later, potentially impacting the area with street-level work.
The BSO operates with a “phased renovation plan” to complete repairs in short sessions between performance seasons, minimizing disruptions.
From AI:
“James Burton was the Choral Director for the Hallé Orchestra from 2002 to 2009, significantly elevating the Choir’s sound and founding the Hallé Youth Choir in 2003. During his tenure, he led them to achieve critical acclaim, including a 2009 Gramophone Choral Award for their recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius.”
The new instrument, often referred to as the Rubenstein Family Organ, was a gift from Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein and was featured heavily in Washington Post coverage of the new instrument.
Below:  The renovated Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the new 4-manual pipe organ.  Notice you can’t see the full length of the organ pipes, and the pipes are too close to the chorister seating in front of them.
A journey inside the pipe organ at the Kennedy Center ...
Below is an image of the National Symphony Orchestra on stage.  One sees even less of the organ pipes at this angle.
Here is how the original stage looked when the Kennedy Center opened.  You can expand that image after you get there to see it better.  The organ pipes were installed behind wooden panels — think of them as wooden “drapes” — and the wood panels (on rollers) opened up when the organ was being used for a performance.  When the organ was not being used, the pipes were not exposed.  They were hidden behind the wall (the wooden panels’ wall or large sliding doors on rollers that opened and closed at the center.  I remember being on the Chorus risers for our Choral Arts Society of Washington performances and sometimes the pipes were already exposed when we got there.  Other times, we would hear the wall opening up behind us when we were on the Chorus risers because the pipe organ was being used for our performance.  I would look over into the Orchestra and see the organ console.
I think the original stage looked much better.  The new, renovated stage looks cramped to me.  I don’t think I would want to be a chorister in the cramped seating up near the organ pipes.   I think the organ might be too loud up there.
Here’s an image of a symphonic choral performance with the Chorus split between on stage and in the chorister seating above:
Kennedy Center - Wikipedia
The Chorus on stage in the image above is probably The Washington Chorus (which used to be known as Robert Shafer’s Oratorio Society of Washington), since I think the Women of the Choral Arts Society still wear all blue, but I could be wrong.
Davies Symphony Hall has similar seating — like the renovated Kennedy Center stage — for the San Francisco Symphony Chorus.  We sang up there and from experience, I preferred to be on stage behind the Orchestra.  For me, it felt like the conductor was too far away with the Symphony Chorus being up there and to me the Chorus felt sort of isolated and it made it harder to hear the Orchestra up there.  But that seating for the Chorus is used in some Concert Halls in the EU.

The cult following of some Collegiate Chapel Choirs

Repost (because it happened again today; one of the cultists wrote gushing praise about Choral Evensong as if he were a “music critic”).

My choral friend asked me about my commenting under the videos for the liturgies of some of the established Church of England/Anglican Collegiate Chapel choral ensembles, such as at Oxbridge.

He asked, “How often do you comment?” I said: Rarely, to not at all. He asked, “Why so rarely?” I said: Well, they already know how good they are, I presume, so they don’t need to be told that. I said: Some viewers comment under every single video with gushing, cult-like praise as if the Chapel Choir has a cult-like following. That turns me off. As I see it, occasional praise — when merited — is fine, but it’s all become a bit much, so I rarely say anything there. If I have anything to say, I say it here. If what I write here comes off as “gushing” about a choral ensemble’s choral excellence, it’s not meant as “gushing” but rather my telling the reader what I honestly think about the choral ensemble I’m promoting and that one is not wasting their time listening to them or watching them. My choral friend said: “Well when you only listen to the best per your training and Orchestra Chorus experience, it’s hard to listen to those who are not the best.” Yes, that’s true. If I hear noticeable vibrato from any section of an Orchestra Chorus, I click off. I don’t want to hear obnoxious wobbling and fluttering where one can’t even tell what pitches they’re singing.

Under the liturgy video, this one commenter who comes to mind has to write these extensive reviews of the liturgy starting with the organ prelude and ending with the organ voluntary at the end and gushing over how he loved the double descants and all.

My choral friend said: How do you feel about the double descants they do? I said: Well, the way they’re done by this one Choir’s soprano section — or is it just one soprano? — I’m not hot on the double descants, and I politely told them that awhile back — which was the last time I commented there — without being offensive but nothing changed. What I told them was: I’ve always heard descants that sound full and lush and sung by the entire soprano section so that the descant soars throughout the Nave or the Concert Hall. But the way this one Chapel Choir does them, it sounds like one soprano sings a descant, which comes off as if she’s singing a solo and it really doesn’t do anything for me. And usually the double descants are done this way, by two sopranos. It can sound like something is wrong especially if there’s a dissonance in the writing of the descant and it’s just one soprano singing it. When this is the case, the descants do not sound full and lush, but rather very thin and like a soloist whose voice is getting overpowered by the Full Choir. Fortunately, she’s using her chorister voice and not a wobbling-vibrato “soloist voice.” Perhaps the composer of these double descants specified that only one soprano should sing each descant and that’s what they’re doing, but they don’t really do anything for me, and I’m a descant person.

Not all of the Collegiate Chapel Choirs have a cult-like following, but the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge does have one, and I’m turned off by it, which explains why I rarely comment under their videos. I feature them here if they performed one of the Howells’s canticle settings or an anthem I especially liked, but anything I have to say about them I write here on occasion. Whereas the cultists, comment on every single video with gushing praise which makes it seem like a cult following.

And like I said, do they need that, it that necessary when the choristers and Director of Music and Organ Scholars already know how good they are — but they remain humble and modest — and then the moderator for their channel feels the need to put a red heart by all of these comments which, too, is a bit much.

My choral friend said: I get you, and I agree with you. I would take the same approach as you do, and I know what you mean by a cult following. Many people these days seem to need that.

I’ve also noticed an increasing number of “jesus-freak” commenters who feel the need to quote parts of the liturgy or something, such as this bunk:

“I enjoy this program every time I get a chance in London. It is remarkable how this music and the messages from the scriptures lift our eyes toward heaven and in doing so make each of our lives easier to endure knowing that a loving Heavenly Father and his Son are there for us. In this day and age of division, may a common belief in God bring us together to recognize our commonalities. Thank you.”

I doubt that these people who write this drivel like the above paragraph are Anglican because from my experience with Anglicans, they don’t proselytise but rather keep their religious beliefs to themselves, unless they are especially extreme Low Church. And Choral Evensong is not a “programme.” It’s an Anglican Liturgy. “Lift our eyes toward heaven?” I don’t see anyone’s eyes in the Chapel with lifted eyes “toward heaven.” “A loving Heavenly Father?” What drugs are you on? Well that “loving Heavenly Father” wasn’t so “loving” and didn’t save the lives of the two innocent people who were killed by ICE in Minneapolis recently, as just one example.

 

The US dictator’s war on Iran. The #2 Terrorist Nation, Israel, is now terrorising Iran

 The United States of Israel.  The 34-count convicted felon and adjudicated sexual pervert predator (“grab ’em by the pussy”) and now dictator clearly resides in the upper colon of that piece of trash and war criminal, netanyahu.  These people are the scum of the Earth.

Repost and updated (3 March 2026).

Rick Steves’s trip to Iran:

Rick Steves has said it a million times:   “Travel tears down the walls that ignorance puts up.”  One of the “maga” pieces of trash — Conservative “MAGA” ideologue Matt Schlapp — recently called Iran a “barbaric society.”  He speaks from a position of willful-ignorance.  I suggest that he needs to get out more.  Like most “maga” — including the piece of shit in the white house — he’s another willfully-ignorant “maga” piece of trash.  Watch these videos, does this look like a “barbaric society” to you?:

Below, Shardad Rohani Conducts the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 with The Tehran Symphony Orchestra.  The video is a clip of the performance so it does cut off the performance after awhile.  I see they’re using a Bösendorfer piano, instead of a Steinway.  I think the pianist is Sepehr Tajpour.

For safety,  I think some people in Tehran have gone down into their metro.

Here’s a map of their metro system; more information here:

Tehran Metro 2024 | Lines, Stations, and More - EavarTravel

They have a beautiful metro, by the way, and an excellent Symphony Orchestra:

3 March 2026:  Well, the title should now be that the #1 and #2 Terrorist nations (US and Israel) are now terrorising Iran and much of the Middle East.  I’m expecting the City of Tehran to look like Gaza in the end, whenever that is.  And I guess their nice metro will be or is in the process of being destroyed.  See a video of their metro below.

Updated 22 June 2025:  More on James David Vance:  I apparently missed this, but after James David was chosen as vp, he desperately wanted people to know that he’s not attracted to men, as if anyone cares.  There was a time — according to his book — that he thought he was gay.  But his grandmother said he wasn’t, so that was that.  He made it clear he’s not a gay guy, if anyone believes that. That he’s married to a female of Indian ancestry — but MAGA is all about a “white America” — and he has kids is supposed to erase any notion that he’s gay.  Only to the most gullible people.  It doesn’t for me since there are many gay guys who are married to a female and have kids. They are specifically called closet cases. “The wife and kids” routine are their cover.  I can hear them now, “No, he’s not gay because he’s married.”  Only a Fool would say that.  Let me be blunt:  A (gay) guy does not have to fuck a girl to get her pregnant, although that is the most common way.  Many people don’t seem to know this, but a guy can cum on her pussy (the lips) and she can get pregnant that way.  Or he can finger his cum into her vagina.  In other words, a gay guy does not have to fuck his wife if he’s not bi and not into fucking girls.  It only takes one fast-moving sperm to make its way in to the egg to get her pregnant. Guys who are desperate for people to know that they’re not gay are the frauds. If he’s not gay, why did he even bring it up, bro? You’ve outed yourself in your desperate attempt to make people think you’re heterosexual.  Without his beard, one could say he has “a gay face.”

Updated 21 June 2025 (Part 2):   JD Vance.  That piece of work.  He serves as the regime’s arrogant resident troll.  Opportunist James David Vance.  Just another piece of redneck, hillbilly basura.

Before he was chosen as the convicted felon’s vp, James David called the convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator an “idiot,” a “moral disaster” and a potential “American Hitler.”  That all changed after he was selected as vp — and from what I read — he went online and immediately deleted all of that, and began to take up permanent residency in the convicted felon’s upper colon where he has resided ever since, mostly serving as a nasty resident troll for anyone in disagreement with his messiah as a member of the MAGA cult and Project 2025.  James David is really a blank slate.

James David seems to stand for nothing, other than whatever the convicted felon spews on any given day.  James David is clearly not in the right job because he doesn’t know how the US system of governance works.  He said that the ultimate decision to attack Iran is up to the convicted felon and sexual predator.  That’s another lie.  The final decision rests with the US Congress and congressional authorisation, but James David doesn’t know that.  Not that the convicted felon thinks that he needs congressional authorisation since he thinks he’s above the law.  How can some idiot be a vp and not know how the US system of governance is supposed to work?  But upon reflection, the convicted felon doesn’t know how the US system of governance works either.  All of this heinous regime consists of some of the nastiest, vile, angry, most ill-informed and most stupid people one will find anywhere.  And apparently they all swarmed to MAGA.  Like attracts like.  Interesting that MAGA is for a white “America.”  Considering that, how does James David explain/justify his non-white wife of Indian ancestry and his kids with Indian names?  What verbal calisthenics does James David use to justify that with the MAGA cult’s “white America” septic thinking?

Updated 21 June 2025:  Insanity:  The insane and childish convicted felon and sexual predator says that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, whilst he’s considering launching a nuclear terrorist attack on Iran.  So it’s alright for him to have and use nuclear weapons, but not for Iran to have one?  I see.  He and Republicans have long abandoned the concept of hypocrisy.  By the way, he’s currently remodeling la casa blanca, the white house even though he’s only a tenant.  The Rose Garden is gone; it’s been paved over and he’s planning to install a Ballroom like the one he has in Florida.  Anyone who resides in the white house is a tenant.  Tenants don’t have the right or privilege of changing the premises they live in because they don’t own the place.  This fool doesn’t seem clear on that concept.  He seems to live under delusions that he owns the white house.

Updated 19 June 2025:  Overheard in the Conservatory’s Church Music Department:  What about “Thou Shalt Not Kill?” does the Christian-Fraud and insane/deranged, moronic convicted felon and sexual predator not understand?  The commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” is very specific, so a genuine Christian — of which none of these trash in his heinous regime are — would absolutely oppose bombing Iran/Tehran because they will be killing innocent people, whilst they pretend to be a Christian.  Again, they are all Christian frauds, fakes.  None of these scum of the Earth people live their corrupt life like Jesus did, from what we are told about the life of Jesus from learned theologians.

Updated 18 June 2025:  “Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons. Estimates of Israel’s stockpile range between 90 and 400 nuclear warheads.“—AI   No nation should have nuclear weapons, but since the #1 Terrorist nation on the planet (the US) and the #2 Terrorist nation on the planet (Israel) both have a nuclear weapons’ stockpile, I fail to understand why Iran or any other nation should not have the same.  These political trash — that netanyahu nut/war criminal and the convicted felon and sexual predator — reek of hypocrisy.  And again, the US (which pretends to be a “Christian nation”) is the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons on a civilian population.  What purpose will it serve to turn the beautiful and ancient City of Tehran into another Gaza, killing millions of innocent people and  destroying their beautiful metro (see video below)?

So the convicted felon and sexual predator in the White House has ordered Tehran to evacuate.  Who does he think he is?  The mayor of Tehran?  Apparently so, since it’s the mayor of Tehran who would be the official person to order such an evacuation. And where does this damn fool expect 10 million people to evacuate to?

The city of Tehran, Iran, had an estimated population of 9.729,740 in 2025. The Tehran Metropolitan Area, which includes surrounding areas, has a population of approximately 14 million.”—AI

Iranians were asking the same question.  Does the convicted felon criminal not know that Tehran is a major city?  By comparison, Los Ángeles has a population of approximately 4 million (2023:  3.8 million).

More from the Tehran Symphony Orchestra:

It should be pointed out that the US is the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons on a civilian population and they have a large stockpile. And the #2 terrorist nation in the world is sacrosanct Israel.  Israel is a pariah on the planet led by a war criminal.  He is absolute trash.

Why shouldn’t Iran have a nuclear weapons’ programme like other nations do?   I can hear the answer now:  “Oh because they are loony because of their religious beliefs.”  Well, again, it was the so-called “Christian nation” — the United States of North America — and their religious loons that used nuclear weapons in the first place. The hypocrisy is blatant.

I noticed that the convicted felon and sexual predator in the White House does that childish fist-pumping nonsense anywhere he goes, not just in the US.  I think he now does it on automatic pilot as habit.

And who does the convicted felon criminal think he is in telling Iran they cannot have a nuclear weapons’ programme?

At his cult rallies, the convicted felon and adjudicated sexual rapist promised his MAGA cultists that he would not engage in regime change, yet things are being put in place exactly for that in Iran from all credible news reports I’ve seen.  One of his cultists (initials:  TC) have already described him as “complicit,” and the convicted criminal has turned on his cultist by trolling him, but I doubt that the convicted felon even knows what the word “complicit” means.

Some Iranians were interviewed in Tehran and they said they weren’t going anywhere.  If anyone is going to evacuate, they suggested that it should be Israel.

And as usual with the media, we have the two different pronunciations for the people of Iran.  How do they get “rain” out of “ran” (pronounced “ron?)

Related:

Don’t miss the oval office “prayer scene” in this video.  A bunch of Christian frauds, all of them.  Prayer and bombs.  More insanity.

This immature “maga” regime sees war as a video game — that’s all it is to them — and of course the dictator never served at all in the US military claiming “bone spurs”:

White House releases video montages gamifying Iran war on social media

Wake up before it’s too late: Oppose the unjust, cruel war on Iran

I agree with Timothée Chalamet

I read an article today with the headline:

Timothée Chalamet dragged by opera and ballet worlds after he said ‘no one cares’ about them

The caption was:

“The LA Opera, Metropolitan Opera and Royal Ballet and Opera shaded Chalamet following his comments during a live conversation with Variety magazine.”

Well what he said was the truth, and the truth hurts.  I agree with Timothée because I know what he means.  Pop culture and society as a whole doesn’t care about screaming (what’s officially known as opera).  Nor do they care about ballet.  He should have said that screaming (also known as opera) and ballet are both special niches, because they are, and that’s why “no one cares” about them, meaning society as a whole.  I understood what he meant.  Why didn’t these dense people in screaming and in ballet not grasp that?  Screaming (opera) and ballet attract only a certain audience/group of people/a special niche.  And those who disagree with Timothée are in Denial of that.

Just like what I write about, “no one cares” about that either because the things I write about have only a certain group of people interested in it.  They, too, are a special niche.

His critics were taking a very fundamentalist interpretation of what he said, taking it literally.  That’s what fundamentalist so-called Christians do.

When was the last time that screaming/opera or ballet were part of your newscast in that section where they may feature  pop culture artists, (if they’re going to feature anybody)?

Of course their little special group (niche) that they attract with screaming and ballet cares about them, but that’s it.  Society as a whole does not and that’s what he was saying.

Most people don’t care about symphony orchestras or Choruses of any kind either.  For years, I’ve heard and read about what’s known as “the greying audience” meaning most of the people in the audience have grey hair.  Where are all the others?  They’re not there because they’re not into that or they can’t afford to go.  Most people don’t care about Orchestra Choruses either and that’s why Orchestra Choruses are mostly down to performing “The Big Three”, (Beethoven’s Ninth, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Messiah), with few exceptions to that.  Apparently the Big Three is all the US public wants to hear.  Gone are the many oratorios and cantatas.  The repertoire is more varied in the EU.

Orchestras in the US have had to attract audiences by catering to stupid, dumbed-down, and the lowest common denominator:    These days — and for some time now — some (or is it most?) major Orchestras in the US have resorted to putting up a giant film screen over the organ pipes in the Concert Hall (if the Concert Hall is fortunate to have a pipe organ) and the Orchestra plays a soundtrack as the audience watches the film on the screen.  (Psssst:  One can do that at home).  That’s what things have been reduced to.  Or in other words:  Stupid.  Dumbed-down.

The screamers/opera crowd and ballet crowd can go on about how they’re selling tickets but, again, they’re selling tickets — assuming they are — to that special niche they have.

Society has a whole doesn’t give a fuck about screamers/opera screamers or ballet or orchestral music or Symphony Choruses for that matter.  They also don’t care about what I write about.  Again, I too, write about topics that are a special niche and I know that.  My articles are not intended for society as a whole, because most of society has no interest in what I write about.  Society would have an interest in my articles if I wrote about burning cars flying through the air and jetting into a skyscraper in flames.  That would be a hot topic, but I’m not into that.

But what Timothée Chalamet said was the truth, which the screamers and ballet crowd didn’t want to hear.  They also won’t like what I’ve said here, but I don’t give a fuck whether they like it or not.  Again, the truth hurts.

 

 

Noble: Service in b – The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge (Church of England)

Here’s the Service Leaflet for this Choral Evensong.

The Trinity Choir is a consistent example of the highest level of choral excellence.

I had gotten through part of Choral Evensong by the stellar Trinity College Choir from Oxbridge (Trinity College of the University of Cambridge specifically) and noticed that The Trinity Choir was performing the Noble Service in b — some Conservatory training:  a lower case b means in b minor; an upper case B means in B major — which I performed years ago.  I got to the section where the text is, “He remembering his mercy (pronounced more like “mussy”…”) and The Trinity Choir sang that especially well.  It moved me.

My choral friend was nearby and I said:  I want you to hear this even though you don’t know the piece (beginning at 24.39 in the video), but listen to how well they sang this.  So I started playing that section for him and he said, “I’ve never heard it sung like that.”  I asked him:  Well where have you heard this sung to begin with to make that comparison?  He was just as moved as myself by the beauty of their singing.  As it turned out, he had heard this canticle setting as a boy.  His parents took him to the local podunk very Low Church Episcopal parish nearby (but his parents didn’t “attend church” themselves) — which he has nothing but negative remembrances about — and what they called “the Choir” in that parish tried to sing the Noble.  Since they didn’t have Choral Evensong, I guess they used the Magnificat part as an anthem.  He said it sounded nothing like the way Trinity sings it.  From what he’s told me about his childhood church, the parish was barely Episcopal.  They did some strange things with lots of guilt tripping the few who showed up.  But he does remember this piece (the Noble Service in b) from his childhood.  I said:  Well it would have to be from that time because I don’t remember playing this canticle setting for him.  Or maybe I played it for myself and he overheard it sometime in the past.  He said it was ina blue book.  They had “the blue book, a red book, and the bible.”  I said:  Well, the blue book would be the hymnal, but canticle settings are not in the hymnal, because canticle settings are not sung by the congregation.  The red book would be The Book of Common Prayer.  And the bible?  What was that doing there?  The bible is not there in the pews.  I asked:  Did they have a service leaflet where parts of the bible along with text from the BCP that they’re using for that liturgy would be printed?  He said they had a service leaflet of sorts but it didn’t have the liturgy on it.

He asked me, “do the choristers hear how gorgeous they sound?”  Yes of course they do and it’s why they’re able to listen to each other and to hear the entire Choir to perfectly blend their voices, and their balance of sections is perfect as well.

He asked:  When you sang the Noble Service in b with the Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys was it that good?  I think so.  The Cathedral Choir at that time was superb — they’re not now; I think something happened to them during COVID and they never recovered — but I remembering us singing this and that section I played for my choral friend has stayed with me because of its beauty.

He said, “Anglicans have the best Choirs.”  I agree and it’s part of what is known as the “Rich Anglican Choral Tradition.”  I’m not aware that any other Christian “denomination” has that distinction or what is known as a “Choral Tradition.”

I’m slow to talk about best this and best that because that’s what the US does when trying to convince themselves — with chest-beating — about how they think they’re the “greatest country on Earth” and all that nationalistic rubbish.  Well, they, along with the #2 terrorist nation of Israel (the US being the #1 terrorist nation), are the greatest at killing (innocent) people whilst they claim to be Christians (and Jews) and believe in the Commandments, one of which is “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”  What part of that very basic and straight forward Commandment do these Christian Fraud trash not understand?  That commandment does not come with any exceptions or caveats to it, such as, “That Commandment really applies only to such and such” excuses or “That doesn’t apply to the State so the States can kill anybody they want,” nonsense.  And how do Jews rationalise that in their minds?  Or are they just as fraudulent and fake as the Christian Frauds?  I. suspect. so.

As of this writing it is Lent, so most Anglican/Episcopal parishes and cathedral churches choose more “toned down” repertoire.  There’s a run on Renaissance music during Lent.  With some exceptions, you’re not likely to hear the Howells’s St Paul’s Service or Gloucester Service during Lent or anything “grand and glorious.”  “Grand and glorious” is saved for the First through Seventh Sundays of Easter.  (Yes, Southern Baptists:  There are seven Sundays in Easter, but you wouldn’t know anything about that).  In recent years, I’ve noticed some churches bucking that silly tradition of having to programme all “toned down” music during Lent.

 

Operation Epstein

Anything to get the news cycle off of the Epstein files.

There’s a lot I could write about this, but I’ll just say this:

Why have the two major terrorist nations on Earth launched an illegal terrorist attack on Tehran?  Answer:  To get the news cycle off of the Epstein files.

And because the dictator never served a day in his pathetic life in the US military (claiming bone spurs), he wants to play war, as if it’s just a video game to him.  As of this writing, Mr Hypocrite is talking about this war — he calls it a war — lasting at least 6 weeks after he campaigned against and made many statements opposing wars, opposing regime change and opposing unending wars.  Now look, he’s doing just the opposite.

Bombing Tehran is like bombing any US major city. Tehran is a major city with a population of 8.3 to 9.7 million people.  Parts of Tehran are now starting to look like the genocide in Gaza and what the terrorist nation of Israel did to that city.

I read that the anti-war “maga” cult opposes these terrorist attacks, but the “maga” Republicans in the US Congress are — as expected — remain in cult formation in support of their cult dictator (who, like a dictator, did not get congressional approval).

The Christian fraud dictator loves to kill people, including innocent people whilst he pretends to be a Christian. And the Christian fraud can’t exist without bullying someone.

I’m no supporter of Putin, but he released a statement saying, “…the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader was committed in cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.”

When may we expect someone to launch a regime change in the US?  That’s where it’s needed.

From Nederlands: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis: Cappella Amsterdam, Orkest van de 18e eeuw, Reuss

From Nederlands: Cappella Amsterdam and Orkest van de 18e eeuw/Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Daniel Reuss conductor and Chorus Director. Vocal Soloist: Carolyn Sampson [sopraan] Marianne Beate Kielland [alt] Thomas Walker [tenor] David Wilson-Johnson [bas]

This performance from Amsterdam is a model of choral excellence.  The Chorus is Cappella Amsterdam.

My friend asked me: Why are there soloists in the Missa Solemnis? Yeah well, I’ll go even farther: Why are there vocal soloists in any symphonic choral work?  Someone would say, “It’s to give the Chorus a break.”  Reality:  The Chorus doesn’t need a break since they don’t get to perform that often to begin with or during the season, especially these days where — with few exceptions — there are about three symphonic choral works that are programmed for Chorus and Orchestra.  It wouldn’t be bad if the finest choristers were allowed to sing the vocal solo parts, but that’s usually not the case unfortunately. Usually screamers from the opera genre are invited in even though opera and symphonic choral works are two completely different genres.  And some people who don’t know anything about music will go to hear the Beethoven Missa Solemnis thinking that it’s opera because of the screamers who serve as “soloists.”  Opera = costuming, scenery and a story line.

 Just like with Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the only live performance I have heard of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is the performance I saw years ago in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with Dr Paul Traver’s outstanding 150-voice University of Maryland Chorus and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam with Claudio Abbado conducting.  This was a superb performance, just like this performance from Amsterdam. The Washington Post music reviewer wrote, “The University of Maryland Chorus was glorious throughout.” Margaret Hillis (Founder and Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus) had recommended the University of Maryland Chorus to Claudio Abbado when he called her in Chicago asking for a recommendation of a Chorus in the DC area.  She had worked with The Maryland Chorus — as they were also known — during a workshop on the University of Maryland at College Park campus.

The soprano soloist, Sheila Armstrong, for the Kennedy Center performance was interviewed by the local classical music station at that time, WGMS, and she said in the interview (it came sort of out of nowhere), “I’d like to make mention about this Chorus.  This Chorus is one of the finest I’ve ever heard.”  (I was shaking my head in complete agreement and thanking Sheila for saying that because up until this point in the interview, one would not even know that the Missa Solemnis was a choral work; instead the interview up until this point was all about her and her career).  The interviewer at WGMS said, “We should mention that the Chorus is that of the University of Maryland.” 

Later, when I sang with The Maryland Chorus, one of the sopranos was still in the Chorus who sang the Missa Solemnis and I talked with her.  I mentioned to her that I noticed that she smiled throughout the performance and I asked her about that.  She said, “It was such a pleasure for us to sing with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam.  Not too many people get that opportunity.”  Indeed, and especially a University Chorus, but the University of Maryland Chorus was not your average University Chorus by any definition.  They were a major Orchestra Chorus in the Washington Metropolitan Area with many performances primarily in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra, and also in New York’s Carnegie Hall, in London and in Europe (the Hallé Music Festival).

These days, the Missa Solemnis is not being performed often, well, like much of the symphonic choral repertoire.  We’re down to The Big Three.  That’s especially true in the States.  The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed it last season, I believe it was.  I was surprised to see that. 

Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“The Resurrection”)

Performed in Munich by the Bavarian Radio Choir and Bavarian Symphony Orchestra

Updated: The juvenile “maga” cultists love to jump up and down — like that beer-drinking, juvenile FBI director, Kash Patel, was doing in the men’s locker room at the Olympics — and shout how the US is the “greatest country.” The immature and rude/crude dictator says the US is “the hottest country.” Both of these cultists like to say these things to try to convince themselves that this is the case. The thinking is: Say it often enough and they start to believe it. And it really depends how “greatest country” is defined, and why does there have to be a “greatest country?” Many nations are great.

The ensembles in the performances on this page (both Orchestra and Chorus) are part of the public broadcasting system in Deutschland. The US has nothing like that. The US has no musical ensembles associated with what remains of public media. In fact, under the dictator’s regime, federal funding has been ended for public broadcasting/public media. That’s how little the US thinks of public broadcasting under the current stupid, draconian and barbaric regime and thoroughly corrupt and incompetent “maga” cultists.

There is a saying that is quite true and that is any Chorus can sing loudly — which they can but they may not be singing loudly and beautifully with choral excellence — but only the finest Choruses can singing beautifully quietly, as these two (make that three) Choruses do in these performances below. Listen to their hushed choral excellence/diction, and they’re also sitting for the quiet sections which makes it more difficult to sing quietly.

I’ve been slow to feature this piece because of the screamers (vocal soloists).  Some people will say that because Mahler never wrote an opera and that all of his symphonies are considered operas or operatic of sorts because of the vocal soloists, even though there is no costuming and scenery involved, which is part of the definition of opera.

This is one of the problems of the classical music tradition.  The reality is that it doesn’t matter what piece it is of the symphonic choral repertoire, when there are vocal solo parts involved, who is brought in to the performance to scream out those parts?  It’s always opera divas from artist management companies.  That’s what they sound like, even when the piece has nothing remotely to do with opera.  And because of this, some people who know nothing about music think that all symphonic choral works are opera because of the  opera divas screaming out the solo parts, when that is not the case at all.

As for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2:

The piece is really about the power of love.

  • The “Resurrection”:  Mahler noted that the title refers not to a traditional, narrow, religious dogma but to the “resurrection” of the human spirit after the trials of life. It is a highly, emotional and, ultimately affirmative statement about the power of love.
  • Though Mahler converted to Catholicism, he was not a strictly practicing Christian. The symphony is seen as a deeply personal, philosophical work, grappling with the suffering of existence, and offering an often non-dogmatic, spiritual, almost pantheistic, vision of afterlife.
    Pantheism is the belief that a deity and the universe are identical, viewing the cosmos, nature, and the divine as a single, all-encompassing, self-organising unity. It rejects a personal, transcendent creator in favor of an immanent divinity found within all things. Core beliefs emphasize that everything is interconnected, sacred, and part of one divine substance.

Gustav lived between 1860 – 1911.  He died at the age of 50 in Vienna due to heart complications.

You would think that the religious nuts would try to make this piece all about their fundamentalist religious beliefs, but the sense I get and have always had is that most people think this is a strictly secular piece.  I suppose they see the word “Resurrection” in the title, but they don’t make anything about that.

As for Mahler, easy going and easy to get along with he was most certainly not. The singers and instrumentalists who performed under his him loathed him: to them, he was a small, pale tyrant who gave them no quarter and rehearsed works — they thought they knew — for hour after unending hour.

Management, likewise, usually detested him, with his endless artistic demands and constant threats to quit if those demands were not met. But no one could argue with the results, because audiences loved him, and everywhere he went he raised the level of performance to the degree that his actions and behaviors were tolerated; had to be tolerated.

I have wanted to feature this piece for some time, but I couldn’t find an Orchestra Chorus that I found acceptable, trained in choral excellence until now where I found this performance from the Bavaria Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra, and later the performance from the combined WDR Radio Choir and Berlin Radio Choir, and WDR Symphony Orchestra.  Both performances were in Deutschland.  I think Deutschland has the finest Orchestra Choruses these days trained in the highest of choral excellence.

Unfortunately, Mahler viewed his symphonies as operatic in nature and felt the need to stick all of these vocal soloist parts into the piece, which ruins it for me and for my choral friend.  This is especially true for the vocal soloists (aka screamers) who have poor vocal technique that they use so much vibrato that you can tell what pitch they’re aiming for.

The Vibratobots(TM) always say that one must sing (they really mean scream) with heavy vibrato to be heard over an orchestra.  They never consider that orchestras are quite adept at accompanying a screamer. And with technology being what it is today, no one has to scream over an orchestra or a piano accompanist for that matter.  All opera divas can sing “normally” and wear discreet mics and or headsets on their person to be easily heard with the orchestra. So there’s no more need to “sing (scream) over the orchestra” to be heard.

In the second performance of this piece (second video below), the screamers were parked on the front of the stage and they had microphones in front of them.  The reality is that neither needed a mic as their obnoxious voice could be heard in the next city over.  In fact, the soprano screamer ruined the perfect intonation of the soprano section of the Chorus on their High B Flat as she was wobbling and fluttering.  At first I thought it was the sopranos of the Chorus, but my choral friend said, “No, that’s the soprano screamer,” which I had forget was also singing-screaming at the time.  He was correct.  They are one of my favourite Choruses so I was surprised that to hear noticeable vibrato from them did I don’t usually hear from them.  In the quietest choral section, the soprano screamer comes in with fucking wobbling which does not at all match the smooth sound of the Orchestra and Chorus.  She ruined it and seemed clueless about it.  It only takes one voice with wobbling vibrato to ruin perfect intonation and that’s what happened here.  The Chorus was well-trained in perfect intonation, but the soprano screamer’s wobbling contaminated the perfect intonation from the soprano section especially on the high B Flats in the finale.  Like I said, she ruined it.

The only live performance I’ve heard of this piece — where I was also in the Concert Hall — was in the Kennedy Center years ago with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and the University of Maryland Chorus. I had seen on the NSO’s subscription series that The Maryland Chorus (as they were also known) seemed to be the Official Chorus of the National Symphony Orchestra at that time and I was determined to hear them. They were outstanding which is why they were Antal Doráti’s favourite Chorus and he invited them to perform with the NSO as often as possible. This didn’t set too well with the Choral Arts Society of Washington because they didn’t get as many invitations to perform with the NSO as they thought they should have — although one of the seasons I sang with them I remember us having 5-6 set of engagements with the NSO — because of the number of engagements given to the University of Maryland Chorus.  I liked both Choruses so I didn’t take part in the silly, one-way rivalry and lies that were said about Dr Traver and Maryland.  This was at the (what I call) height of the symphonic choral movement in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall where lots of works for Orchestra and Chorus were programmed, as compared to today where that is not the case at all.  Related:  The Big Three.

Have I told you how much I can’t stand vocal soloists, with few exceptions to that.  And of course the Vibratobots have umpteen rationales, lies and justifications to support the screamers,

Regardless of the piece, the soloists seem to think they’re on an opera stage.  I’m not into opera.  My choral friend has even less patience for this piece than I do.  I know where the choral parts are so I go to those and bypass the rest of it where the screamers are.

As I said, the vocal screamers — officially known as “soloists” — ruined it for me.  But at least the conductor — in the second performance down — parked the screamers away from the front of the stage and off to the side, back on the left side of the Chorus.  I think the screamers were mic’d even though they didn’t need to be as both could overpower the full Orchestra and Chorus without being mic’d.

I finally found a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 from a Chorus prepared in choral excellence, meaning, in part, that they sing in all voice sections (SATB) without wobbling vibrato. And the Orchestra played superbly as well. As for the vocal wobbling and fluttering screamers (commonly called “soloists”) who ruin it, well, I don’t have much to say about them and I’m not even saying who they are.  I was listening to the Chorus and their very smooth choral entrance and that was followed by one of the screamers. She came in with wobbling vibrato which completely ruined the moment for me. She seemed clueless that she wasn’t at all matching or trying to match the sound of the Chorus. Someone in the comments of the video complained about “too much vibrato.” So it wasn’t just me who was turned off by this noise.  I don’t find wobbling and fluttering to be music, and in some cases it’s used to cover up bad vocal technique.  I find wobbling and fluttering to be noise when it clashes with the smooth perfect intonation sounds of the Orchestra and Chorus.

In the first performance, from what I could tell, neither screamer was mic’d so production must have felt that neither screamer needed to be mic’d as they both had the ability to scream over all the other musicians on stage, which is usually the case.  Yes, they have the ability to scream over the Full Orchestra and Chorus and pipe organ.

This piece is not an opera — although Mahler considered his symphonies to be “inclusive” meaning, I guess, that his symphonies included aspects of opera (such as screaming) —  so the screamers took advantage of this and seemed to think it is opera and used the same obnoxious wobbling and fluttering vocal techniques that they use in opera.  As if to say, “Guess what pitch I’m singing?”  They made no attempt to blend with the Chorus and still be tastefully heard.

Did the conductor think there was “too much vibrato?”  Well, if he did, he apparently didn’t correct the screamer.  From my Orchestra Chorus experience, I don’t remember any conductor correcting a screamer on anything, at least not on stage. That’s something that is not done.

The screamers come from artist management agencies so they are seen as sacrosanct or above reproach and that’s how conductors approach them, as if they arrive on stage “perfect” even when they’re not.  Another double standard.  Although the conductor has no problem correcting the Symphony Chorus or the Orchestra on something, but not the screamers.

Notice the “bells up” for the French horns in the finale in the first performance, and also the wind section doesn’t play in part of that.  The violin section really has to work in the finale with their fast bowing although it looks like synchronised bowing to me, and not staggered bowing (to create a pedal point effect) as is sometimes used to keep the sound going nonstop in other pieces.

Interestingly, I see some of the same choristers in this performance that performed in the Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony.  They were in the Gaechinger Cantorey for that performance from Deutschland with the SWR Symphonieorchester.

I also found this performance (below) — with one of my favourite Choruses from Deutschland.  I was hearing some screaming vibrato on the top high B Flat in the finale and I mistakenly thought it was the soprano section.  I listened again with my choral friend and he said the Chorus was excellent and the screaming was from the soprano soloist which I realised was the case.  Both screamers were unfortunately mic’d even though they didn’t need to be as their screaming could be heard in the next city over, especially with the soprano screamer.  This is not artistic singing, this is screaming and any fool can scream.  Screaming is noise; screaming is not music.  With few exceptions, this is especially true with soprano screamers who seem absolutely unable to control their voice.  One wonders where some people trained — they would need thick walls and soundproofing to block her obnoxious voice from travelling throughout the halls of the Conservatory or a University’s School of Music — and Voice Departments are turning out people like that whose obnoxious voice can overpower a Full Orchestra and Chorus.

 

Here’s a third performance from Deutschland I found. It’s not the same Chorus, but some of the same choristers are in this Chorus. From a choral sense, I think the Chorus may be better recorded in this performance.

I’m not hot on the idea of seating the screamers up in the front row center of the Chorus. But since the Chorus was seated up on what is essentially the second story of the building in those seats, I guess the conductor thought it would look better to have the screamers seated where they are, than separated on the left side of the Chorus:

Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
SWR Vokalensemble
SWR Symphonieorchester
Dirigent: Christoph Eschenbach