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I've noticed that some kindly folk have uploaded links for music ripped from YouTube, and thought a very brief suggestion of how to do this would be of service. Although an excellent site in many respects, for various reasons YouTube does not offer a download option on its own accord. There are specific YouTube downloaders which can be found on line, both paid for and not (the free ones I have used perfectly satisfactorily) which offer this helpful trick, but all the regular caveats apply to opening executable files from the net. I have found the easiest alternative of all is to simply install the Torch browser (I am not connected in any way with this company) which has a downloader from any playable on-site file built in as standard, including the option to tease out sound as an accompanying mp3! Remember of course to set playback of your chosen file at the highest quality before OK-ing the download, a common option which is available as an adjustment on the bottom of the image of each YT playback window. In the event of several files being required as one continuous performance, although most YT music videos simply break up the movements, you may wish then you might need an mp3 joiner programme. I made the 'mistake' of casually searching for unknown music on YT a couple of years back and spent a good week discovering that it is not all just dancing cats, pop promos, and funny-accident videos there! You will, seriously, be amazed at what unknown names and work can be found from the world of classical music through a systematic search. I know I was and have the swollen hard drive to prove it. Happy hunting.

I recently discovered Perosi and was intrigued enough to buy the only english-language biography, and reviewed it (Don Perosi by Leonardo Campra) elsewhere thusly:


"Ciampra's book is a pioneering study, being the first in english, of an pretty obscure name in classical music these days which makes its shortcoming all the more regrettable. Perosi (1872-1956) was a Catholic priest who had great success with a succession of oratorios as well as much other religious and secular music, although he never completed an opera. Astonishingly popular, especially on the continent in his day, Perosi was also a leading light in the movement supporting more traditional music, with sincerity of sentiment, within the church as well as friends with such figures as Mascagni, Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari and the like. HIs music comprises an interesting mix of a Gregorian plain chant style with some operatic features and deserves reassessment and greater popularity. As it is the existing CD releases are fairly hard to acquire, his work rarely revived in an age of different tastes and where modernism has long passed him by.

This book attempts an overview of a career which included two or three notable episodes, such as Perosi's interaction with Mussolini and artistic politics within the Catholic church. Not least was a mysterious episode in 1922 when the composer apparently suffered a breakdown of some sort. The suspicion is that this was manufactured, or exaggerated, by a church uncomfortable with Perosi's views on priestly celibacy and other issues. He was later rehabilitated.

Ciampa's work is a sincere, if frustrating, attempt to pull everything into context. The writer (who is also a composer and choral director) clearly has an affinity for his subject and has done some new and interesting research. But the result sufferers from wandering too far from a strict consideration of his subject, covering a whole supporting cast to a degree which makes one wish that Perosi's work and views were given greater and more detailed consideration. There is no chronology of the musical workaholic Perosi's life for instance and, even more of a lack, no attempt at a list of works either. Perosi wrote, apparently, 3-4000 pieces. While the oratorios which are the composer's main achievement are given (less than detailed) attention, his orchestral and chamber works are covered in less than a page! There is a tiny amount of music analysis to be found anywhere here, and one longs for critical analysis and reports from long-gone concerts, rather than the number of elderly panegyrics we are presented with - which may be pleasing to the composer's remaining admirers, but really do nothing for the interested reader, seeking an authoritative guide to the music, other than take up space. Instead we have rather a rambling account of an obscure career, and are treated to such illustrations as the sunset seen from the author's home - although there are plenty of others it must be said which are more relevant. In short, a useful work, but surely only a stop gap until more heavy spadework is done by a dedicated academic. Perosi is a middle ranking composer who shined in his special field, and whose time in the sun really ought to come again."

I have managed to download a dozen or so CD filled with his works, mostly vocal and some concerti and have been modestly impressed. Even though his is not a major or ground breaking talent, there is still something which brings me back to him in a way that I can't say is true of other composers of similar stature. I say this even though I am not in the least religious and so Perosi's most significant output would be thought to be of less interest! His long-breathed structures in the oratorios and often languid pacing reminds me a little of Schmidt, while the charming string tutti which begins the first violin concerto say alone ought to be enough to show that he is more than a one-trick pony. The CDs which have been issued imho are less convincing with the performances of the chamber music and one would hope that the gentle revival in his music would bring alternatives issues in due course.



This is the first post from a newby here. Good to know you all.