“Dante e Beatrice” is a pop song by Monica LT released in 2018.
Listen to “Dante e Beatrice” on Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify.
posted on April 24, 2020 by
Adam Zgol’s Purgatorio Score
“Dante’s Purgatorio Through Music” showcases a piano composition by Adam Zgol (DeMatha High School ’21, Hyattsville, MD), created as an assignment for DeMatha ethics and theology instructor Homer Twigg’s unit on Purgatorio. The composition was presented at the Academic Symposium at Catholic University (Washington, D.C.) in Spring 2020.
The whole composition is available to listen to on Soundcloud.
We thank Adam Zgol and Homer Twigg for their permission to share these files.
posted on February 22, 2020 by
Journey Through Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell – Led by Sherman Irby
“Last week we introduced you to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s Music of Wayne Shorter and indicated that we’d cover more releases from their label. This installment is a suite of seven movements composed and conducted by the JLCO’s lead alto saxophonist, Sherman Irby, Inferno was performed live in 2012 and captured on this recording. It’s Irby’s interpretation of Dante’s epic 14th-century poem of the same name, which follows the author on his imagined, harrowing journey through the nine circles of Hell. To say it’s incendiary (pardon the reference) completely understates the passion of these performances.
“At the heart of the piece is the horn who plays the central character, the late baritone saxophonist that Irby recalls fondly, ‘I wrote this act for Joe Temperley,’ Irby remarks. ‘He was the band’s elder statesman and musical guide for almost 30 years. It was my honor to feature his beautiful, passionate sound as the voice of the central character, Dante.’ This is not an unusual gesture as bandmate, trombonist Chris Crenshaw says, ‘Sherman cares for his brethren, and he cares about this music, and that goes a long way.’ Besides, featuring his bandmates liberally in solos, (Movement V has six of them for example), this music is intelligent, unique, moody and ultimately swings crazily.” [. . .] –Jim Hynes, Glide Magazine, February 6, 2020
Contributed by Trey Turney (The Bolles School, ’22)
posted on February 22, 2020 by
“The Convalescent” by Manic Street Preachers (2001)
Alberto Juanterino unique in his field
These are the things that, that make you feel
Klaus Kinski with love of Werner Herzog
Scream until the war is over[x2]
Srebrenica cousin of Treblinka
Scream until the war is over
War is over
And Dante’s Inferno slides into dysmorphia
So scream until the war is over” [. . .]
On their 2001 album Know Your Enemy, Manic Street Preachers‘ song “The Convalescent” contains the lyric “And Dante’s Inferno slides into dysmorphia” in verse three. (Manic Street Preachers, Epic, March 19, 2001)
Contributed Victoria Nicholls (The Bolles School, ’22)
posted on February 22, 2020 by
“The Roommate from Hell” by MC Lars
In MC Lars’ 2006 album The Graduate, the song “The Roommate from Hell” contains lyric “when did room 56 become Dante’s Inferno?” (MC Lars, Horris Records, March 21, 2006)
Contributed by Victoria Nicholls (The Bolles School, ’22)
posted on February 19, 2020 by
Franz Liszt, “Dante Sonata”
“Franz Liszt’s Dante Sonata, also known as the Fantasia Quasi Sonata, is a sonata written for piano solo (different than Liszt’s Dante Symphony). Written as program music during the Romantic period, there are nine different motifs used throughout the piece, representing the nine different levels of Hell. In addition, within the nine motifs, Liszt created two major themes or ideas, one in major and one in minor. The minor is said to represent the dark nature of Hell, and the major is said to represent Beatrice and Heaven.” –Contributor Ian Peiris
Listen to Mikhail Pletnev’s recording of the piece on YouTube (last accessed February 19, 2020). See also the previous post for Liszt’s Dante Symphony here.
Contributed by Ian Peiris (The Bolles School ’22)
posted on February 18, 2020 by
“You’re the Top” by Ella Fitzgerald
In the 1956 studio album Ella Fitzgerald Covers the Cole Porter Song Book, Ella Fitzgerald covers “You’re the Top” from the 1934 musical Anything Goes, and in the last verse sings “You’re a rose, you’re Inferno’s Dante.”
Contributed by Victoria Nicholls (The Bolles School ’22)
posted on January 7, 2020 by
“Michael Hersch’s ‘a breath upwards’ Receives Baltimore Premiere”
“Scored for soprano, horn, clarinet, and viola, ‘a breath upwards’ has a sung text drawn from Dante — mostly Purgatorio, with some Inferno at the end — and another, un-sung text drawn from Ezra Pound’s Cantos. The fragmentary Pound lines are meant to be contemplated during four instrumental interludes in the 12-movement cycle.
[. . .]
This score, Hersch wrote in a program note printed in Thursday’s program, was his effort ‘to get away from illness, fear and loss,’ that he turned to parts of Dante’s epic poem about purgatory and hell might not seem the most logical way of going about this attitude shift, but it’s a perfectly natural choice for the deep-thinking Hersch.
[. . .]
The most extraordinary and moving passage was the final song, when the dark mood lifted just enough, leading to a long, beautiful melodic arc for the singer in the final line: ‘And then we emerged to see the stars again.’ The sudden cut-off at the end of that line — like the way a falling star evaporates in an instant — was a master stroke.” –Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, April 24, 2015
posted on January 2, 2020 by
The Swoon, Neverland/ben son ben son Beatrice (1990 album)
Christian rock band The Swoon released an EP in 1990 titled Neverland/ben son ben son Beatrice. Click the image of the album cover to listen to one of the tracks, “Via Dolorosa,” on YouTube. An image of the track list, as printed on the CD, is below (image from Amazon.com).
Read a 1991 review of the album in Hope College’s student newspaper The anchor, here.
posted on December 22, 2019 by
“Every Major Piece of Art Featured in Beyoncé and Jay Z’s Apesh*t Video”
“Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta appraised by Dante and Virgil (1835)
“This work by Ary Scheffer depicts a scene from Dante’s Inferno, but not just any scene. In it, Dante and Virgil can be seen watching Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta in hell. The reason they’re in hell? Infidelity. The pair fell in love and carried on affair, despite both being married. Upon finding out, Francesca’s husband, who also happened to be Paolo’s brother, murdered them.” —
