This week we mark that time of year when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest, with the musical equivalent of what, in the Mexican tradition of the Mexican Day of the Dead, would be called an ofrenda—an altar, created in the home to honor and welcome back the souls of deceased loved ones. Composers (other musicians, and creative figures in general) to be memorialized on Sunday's special program include Maurice Ravel, Benjamin Britten, Richard Wagner, Serge Koussevitsky and Viktor Hartmann—with composers doing the memorializing including Franz Liszt, David Diamond, Anton Bruckner, Arvo Pärt, Howard Hanson and Modest Mussorgsky. We'll also hear music in memory of departed loved ones by American composers William Bolcom and Samuel Barber—both paying tribute to their fathers upon their deaths and, in doing so, creating one of their signature works.
You can hear Sunday on Blue Lake with Foley Schuler, every Sunday morning from 9 until noon on Blue Lake Public Radio.
