Bill McPhillips and the PhoenixMay 2007 / Music CD Playlist

In Memory of Bill McPhillips (1936-2008)

Presenting the Artist and the Poet

Bill McPhillips on Poetry and Its Challenge:

Born in the Bronx, April 4th, 1937, he discovered in the mystical world of his ancestors in Ballaghaderreen, and the West of Ireland, that poetry was a language to bind the two worlds together, the seen and the unseen, the known and the, maybe, remembered.

Poetry is a memorial art, the language of the soul in time and place … across continents and cultures, time and place, and always arriving back into the eternal here and now.

Note: Excerpts edited and re-phrased by Amazon.com [description of Bill’s book, The Place, 2000].

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Sunday in the Park with George – Elements (Creating an External Painting)

DesignTension

CompositionOrderColor

Harmony

Bill McPhillips – Elements (Painting from the Inside with Words)

TRUE TO MYSELF

WILLIAM BRENDAN McPHILLIPS

All human identity depends on

genes, sense,

influence, culture,

education, nourishment and

climate,

and all of these integrated in consciousness, and sometimes in art.

For me, in poetry and in life, integration of the self and the ever expanding

diverse elements of nature and human community

demand growth. The heart may fail as a pump, but not as a well,

as a metaphor for the common bond.

The Phoenix ThemeThis music is not chosen to be pretty music (though much of it is), but beautiful music – music that reflects the beauty within a life. [Hear this distinction made in the spoken line for George Seurat in the musical play, Sunday in the Park With George.]

It comes from four or five different sources, including the late-20th Century Broadway stage of Sondheim to the crispness and daring of Central and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, both in classical and 20th Century times, reflecting generations of Unitarian creativity and genius, and to the restoration and extension of Cambodian club music based on GI Armed Forces Radio tunes by an unlikely set of California explorers of the former Indo-China and a young Cambodian (Khmer) singer singing at weddings in San Francisco, working from vinyl records found outdoors and other locations in Cambodia. The original singers and songwriters who made them, and achieved fame, were gone, and with so much more.

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Part 1: THE ARTIST

From introduction to Bill McPhillips’ poetry website – wbmcphil.home.pipeline.com:

Poetry is a memorial art, a way of remembering the moments of consciousness,

creating a world we would know and love the fuller for having found ourselves at home in it.

Timing and Track Numbers:

Opening / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Cobalt / Oystein Sevag / Oystein Sevag (Norwegian fusion composer), Maria Sevag (German classical violinist) / Bridge (CD) / Hearts of Space (1997)

/ Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

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Bagatelle IV / Valentin Silvestrov / Bagatelles performed by Valentin Silvestrov, piano; Serenades by Alexei Lubimov. Piano, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Munich Chamber Orchestra / Bagetellen und Serenaden (CD) / ECM (2007)

Poems by William Brendan McPhillips

True To Myself (short version – first half)

Gallagher’s Field

"They are out early today..." / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Spiral / Oystein Sevag / Oystein Sevag (Norwegian fusion composer), Maria Sevag (German classical violinist) / Bridge (CD) / Hearts of Space (1997)

No Life / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Continuum (1970 ) (adapted by Ligeti for barrel organ, 1988+; originally written for harpsichord or piano) / Gyorgi Ligeti / Pierre Charial, barrel organ / Gyorgi Ligeti: Mechanical Music (CD) / Sony (1997)

Color and Light / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Invention (1948) (adapted by Ligeti for barrel organ, 1988+) / Gyorgi Ligeti / Pierre Charial, barrel organ / Gyorgi Ligeti: Mechanical Music (CD) / Sony (1997)

Finishing the Hat / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Variation No. 1, Goldberg Variations / JS Bach / Pierre Hantai, harpsichord / Goldberg Variations (CD) / Mirare (2003)

Sea Song / Pat Metheny / Watercolors (CD) / ECM (1977)

Poems by William Brendan McPhillips

Stretching the Celtic Mind

Michael Freyne’s Clock (large excerpts)

Variation No. 3, Goldberg Variations / JS Bach / Pierre Hantai, harpsichord / Goldberg Variations (CD) / Mirare (2003)

Variation No. 6, Goldberg Variations / JS Bach / Pierre Hantai, harpsichord / Goldberg Variations (CD) / Mirare (2003)

Abschiedsserenade: II / Valentin Silvestrov / Bagatelles performed by Valentin Silvestrov, piano; Serenades performed by Alexei Lubimov. Piano, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Munich Chamber Orchestra / Bagetellen und Serenaden (CD) / ECM (2007)

Elegie / Valentin Silvestrov / Bagatelles performed by Valentin Silvestrov, piano; Serenades performed by Alexei Lubimov. Piano, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Munich Chamber Orchestra / Bagetellen und Serenaden (CD) / ECM (2007)

Zwei Dialoge Mit Nachwort_ I. Hochzeitswalzer / Valentin Silvestrov / Bagatelles performed by Valentin Silvestrov, piano; Serenades performed by Alexei Lubimov. Piano, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Munich Chamber Orchestra / Bagetellen und Serenaden (CD) / ECM (2007)

Poems by William Brendan McPhillips

Croagh Patrick

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Beautiful / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Hungarian Rock (Chaconne, 1978) (adapted by Ligeti for barrel organ, 1988+); / Gyorgi Ligeti / Pierre Charial, barrel organ / Gyorgi Ligeti: Mechanical Music (CD) / Sony (1997)

Chaos / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Sunday / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

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Part 2: THE PHOENIX

Timing and Track Numbers:

Praise Be To God / Sir William Walton arr. music by JS Bach / Bryden Thomson conducting the London Philharmonic / The Quest (complete ballet) & The Wise Virgins (ballet suite) (CD) / Chandos (1990)

It's Hot Up Here / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Monsoon Of Perfume / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

Laugh Track / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

Symphony No.1, Jeremiah, mv3 (Lamentation) (1942) / Leonard Bernstein / Israel Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein; Christa Ludwig, vocalist / Bernstein, The Symphonies; Serenade (CD) / Polgram (1994)

Poems by William Brendan McPhillips

Out of Dartmoor Prison

Phoenix

Coming Out

Bagatellen II / Valentin Silvestrov / Bagatelles performed by Valentin Silvestrov, piano; Serenades by Alexei Lubimov. Piano, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Munich Chamber Orchestra / Bagetellen und Serenaden (CD) / ECM (2007)

Tooth And Nail / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

Seeing Hands / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

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Bagatellen V / Valentin Silvestrov / Bagatelles performed by Valentin Silvestrov, piano; Serenades by Alexei Lubimov. Piano, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Munich Chamber Orchestra / Bagetellen und Serenaden (CD) / ECM (2007)

Oceans Of Venus / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

Tiger Phone Card / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

Bagatellen VII / Valentin Silvestrov / Bagatelles performed by Valentin Silvestrov, piano; Serenades by Alexei Lubimov. Piano, and Christoph Poppen conducting the Munich Chamber Orchestra / Bagetellen und Serenaden (CD) / ECM (2007

Integration / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

Clipped Wings / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

Annual Rings / Oystein Sevag / Oystein Sevag (Norwegian fusion composer), Maria Sevag (German classical violinist) / Bridge (CD) / Hearts of Space (1997)

The Wise Virgins: 1. What God Hath Done, Is Rightly Done / Sir William Walton arr. music by JS Bach / Bryden Thomson conducting the London Philharmonic / The Quest (complete ballet) & The Wise Virgins (ballet suite) (CD) / Chandos (1990)

Lord, Hear My Longing / Sir William Walton arr. music by JS Bach / Bryden Thomson conducting the London Philharmonic / The Quest (complete ballet) & The Wise Virgins (ballet suite) (CD) / Chandos (1990)

"George. Is that you?..." / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Sunday – Finale / Stephen Sondheim / Sunday in the Park With George (CD) (2006 cast from London production (same lead singers as in 2008 New York production) / PS Classics (2006)

Sheep May Safely Graze / Sir William Walton arr. music by JS Bach / Bryden Thomson conducting the London Philharmonic / The Quest (complete ballet) & The Wise Virgins (ballet suite) (CD) / Chandos (1990)

Circle / Oystein Sevag / Oystein Sevag (Norwegian fusion composer), Maria Sevag (German classical violinist) / Bridge (CD) / Hearts of Space (1997)

Poems by William Brendan McPhillips

True To Myself (full version)

Mr. Orange (excerpt) / Dengue Fever / Venus On Earth (CD) / M80 (2008)

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Poetry Excerpts To Read for Music Program (Bill McPhillips and the Phoenix) May 2008

Note: Texts below were source from mcphil.come.pipeline.com before it became inactive.The poem, Michael Freyne’s Clock, was edited in the reading (but not below) to reduce the number of paragraphs by one-third.

GALLAGHER'S FIELD

We used to swimat Gallagher's Field,

where the bottomwas almost bare,of the river and of

the swimmers who swamwhen the sun

and the Summerwere there;

and I try to remember,whenever I can,

that I cannot remembera care.

STRETCHING THE CELTIC MIND

Then was Fir Bolig not Neanderthal,Heavy and groping stone to put on stone,

Building the outer limits of the callTo forge a world from blood and nerve and bone.

No others were as generous in claimAs Celts arriving on this Island were,

Giving the others who were here a nameAnd credit for their work and character.

These Celts were never ones to make the boastOf first or last connection to the soil,

They landed like the ocean on the coastAware of continuity and toil.

Across the continent they came and spreadTheir gospel of inclusion in the law

And recognized the living and the deadConnected in the oat and oak and haw.

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Their's was an ever breaking from the moldOf hierarchy in divine intent,

They would allow no god or king to holdThem ransom to a savior to be sent.

A leader could be leader only whenThe good was spread across the field and clan

And laws and gods were only worthy thenWhen good and right and peace and plenty ran.

They made their story from a tapestryOf tales of others who were here before

And even still in telling historyEmbraced the Norse and Norman to the core.

But having said all that on attitude,They did embrace the new religion then

And when they did turned law to platitudeAnd never saw the union come again.

The point of such an over view is notTo wish the Christ, and all he brought, away,

But to remember underneath the lotThe living moment was the judgement day.

And always in the passing moment stoodThe others who preceded us and gaveA sense of living for the common good

And not of heaven found beyond the grave.

Within the story, now unfolding, liesThis truth of ours in anthropology,

And bones and beads and rocks and ancient tiesBegin to prove our own mythology.

In stories told we give the mind a spanAnd know we set our future in the past,

But no one knows where Celtic lore beganOr why apocalypse was never cast.

We only know we came across the seaAnd found the others who were here before

And after us came others making meAn heir to all of us and them and more.

And as there was no starting point begun,Nor time when gods were only mine to hear,

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Then when we do go out beyond the SunWe'll have Dé Danaan whispers in our ear.

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MICHAEL FREYNE'S CLOCK

The famine was; Victoria was queen;Parnell and Pearse and Collins made the green,

And great grandfather found his means and wayTo build and buy, and come to Town and stay.

His sons and daughters, nine of them, begatThe generations, six at least we're at;

And me, half ways along the line, I keepAn eye in front, and one behind, and reap

The fruits of others, given, taken, whatIn genes, and words, and stories told I got.

The great grandfather never knew the whenOr where of us, descended women, men,

But in that photo of us, now I seeThe unseen, unremembered in us, key

To painting, poetry, and music, art,Remembering the story told, and heart.

The story in the photo was a clock,He bought a hundred years ago, the shock

Is knowing, backwards, what the future wroughtIn us beyond the keeping, telling, bought

For twelve and six, in shillings, pence, he paid,And smiled at Tom, granduncle Tom, and made

The day remembered to be treasured, toldBy son to son, when they themselves were old.

And down to us, the clock and story came,The house he bought, moved into, and the name,

The heirs in regions, scattered, far beyondThe moment set in clock, and time, and bond.

It was his wife, I think, grandmother, great,Whose genes would come to challenge time and fate,

Her first name Margaret, the last was Frain,Pronounced the same as his, spelled by him Freyne.

In time the clock saw generations comeTo sort connections out, the cousins some

Would change the spelling, so in childhood IKnew Avondales were cousins, not the why.

And all the time the clock was on the wall

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We saw the nations grow their greed and fall.The names of those who terrorized the times

We lived in are forever steeped in crimes.

The town that drew him in was once a woodAnd took its name from ancient oaks that stood

Where he, in time, would stand and root the viewMy father gave to me, and I to you.

Magheraboy, just up Tobraken Road,Was too far out for Michael Freyne's abode,

And don't forget how old ambitions bindThe generations growing mind to mind,

And eager ever eager to recallIntention older than a storied fall.

In time recorded, great grandfather's clockIs full of stories, meant to tell, and mock

The dreams, ambitions, lost intentions thatDefied the timeless, idle mind, the flat

Of yesterday erased by yesterday,And all its pain and beauty swept away.

To look at time, as we can see its flow,Of gap, dramatic interval, and know

The missing elements are what we needTo fill the wasteland up again, and feed

Ambitions greater than the single selfOf private fears, or life upon a shelf,

When out beyond the emptiness we findIntention always calling on the mind.

Mid distance down the century a scarGave cause enough to doubt, and curse a star

That carries lineage of nothing, bang!Or in fantastic reaching, Angels sang!

But either way, the dream was all the same,From deep within ourselves intention came

To want to know, to be as witness toThe origin of what we are and do.

In Flannery's, the day that Michael boughtHis clock it was to boast the dream that brought

Him in to live among the people heBelieved to be intended into we.

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Before my great grandfather ever setA foot in town, I'd risk the claim and betHe saw himself as greater than the endOf tribulation., breaking off the bend

Of time forgot, imagined yet to leapFrom who he was, and did, and tried to keep

From being swallowed into timeless time,However bleak, or boring, or sublime.

For him, time had a meaning, no one knowsExactly how it gripped him, even those

Of us connected to him only findAn inkling in the genes, and in the mind.

The town was not the town I came to know,Nor now the town that came to be, to grow

From donkey cart to traffic lanes, and lines,And lorries big as houses checking signs.

Not since the great migrations, long ago,Of armies coming, going, was the flow

Of strangers through the town where Michael keptAn eye on time, and I in time had slept.

On Fridays, on the streets, the markets soldThe delf, and britches, sea weeds, fish, and goldAnd silver passed from hand to hand with spit

To seal the deal, and bond the self a bit.

The Frains, the great grandmother's clan were bigIn selling clothes outside, from stall and rig,At markets all around the West and brought

Their wares from Glasgow, where they went and bought

In bulk what country people never gotTo see at prices far below the lot

The shops would have on counters so the rainWould not besot the bargain bent to gain.

But Michael, knowing time was on the sideOf walls, and towns, was quick to put his pride

In gold leaf letters up above the door,A Clothier and Draper now, and more.

His second oldest, Mary, married JohnMcPhillips, Cavan baker, bringing on

The course that led to Jack and me and thenTo memory, and poetry, and pen.

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And now the mind would delve the clock and time,Since Michael hung it on the wall, in rhyme

To hold the bond against the scatteringOf those in whom the bond is cause to sing.

Throughout my time, before my time, the breakOf wars that shattered, shatter now and make

Us grieve, and wonder what it is we gainFrom holding on to memory and pain.

His oldest grandsons followed Pearse, and oneIn Dartmoor prison, wondered what he won.

The youngest, Brian Óg, in Vietnam,Brought tears to hear us speak of lion, lamb.

Young Brian grew below that ancient clock,And more than seven decades, there's the shock,

Beyond when Michael hung it on the wallA mother's heart was broken by a call.

A war beneath a flag he barely knewIn land ten thousand miles from where he grew,

The youngest of a generation lostTo war, and all its desolation cost.

The century that Michael's clock recallsIs full of horrors, full of hope and falls,And yet, incredibly, beneath the pain,

We dare to dream as Michael did and gain

From knowing backwards how a storey shedIts light upon the midnight doubt and dread

Of time too quickly passing to defendThe moment from a notion time must end.

Three generations either side of meAnd yet the clock is telling time and we

Forget too often to remember whyWe look in two directions, or we die.

Or seeing how each one of us can growBeyond the merely me, and dreaming know

It's not the self alone that brings a dreamTo be, but who we bring into the scheme.

And grieve not now for those we never knew,Nor for the unborn heirs some future grew,But sing the gift and binding let the heart

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Begin to know its purpose, know its part

Against the century of Michael's clock,And all the overwhelming pain and shockRemember how remembering we bring

The tattered strands together when we sing.

December 17th, 1999

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OUT OF DARTMOOR PRISON

Who would put a shackleOn the human mind

Is blind.Poets look

And poets find.

A poem is rooted in the soilAnd all its imagery is toil

Of skin and hair,Of sunlight

And the night air.

In the tellingOf his Dartmoor day

My father grewBeyond decay.

And every generation's claimIs gathered from another's aim,

Stretching the promiseIn all we tell

Cell upon living cell.

Into a prisonI was born,Fettered to

A wall of scorn.

Who can tell me,Tell me whyChild or man

Should ever cryTo be born

Of Earth and sky?

From Dartmoor PrisonTwo men came

Free at last,One from death

And one from shame.

The greatest giftMy father gave,

Reaches nowBeyond the grave

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To see far pastA mystic's dreamThe shape of ourEternal scheme.

____________________________________________________________________

PHOENIX

The soul of a peopleIs being reborn

From ashes and Dachau,And bashing and scorn.

Now no one can crush us,No preacher's tirade

Will stop our creation,The makings are made.

For we are the makersOf life's sacred soul,

Who gather triumphantOur remnant to whole.

The people and nationsAmong us will learn

From us and from DachauNot one soul did burn.

The soul of a peopleThough scattered and torn

Are the ashes of starsHere on Earth being born.

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COMING OUT

I straddled the fenceFor forty odd years,

Reined in the density of fears,Quieting the depthOf my coming out

'Til I gathered the forceOf a decent shout.

When the coming came,The expected roar

Was gone, like a waveOn the Aran shore;

And the knuckles I'd gnarledOn God's front door

Opened in rhymeThat was more and more

ApothecaryTo the ancient sore.

And I wouldn't, like thoseWho bury their dead,

Wear my weightLike a suit of lead

Into the bays of theology.

For the truth is but dustOn the bum of a bee

Brushing againstEternity.

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Croagh Patrick, a Poem by Bill McPhillips

(Note: Connacht is the Western Province of Ireland.

It starts westward from the Shannon river, and includes CountiesMayo, Galway and Sligo on the coast and Roscommon and Leitrim inland.

Bill came from Roscommon, on the borders of Mayo and Sligo.)

+

CROAGH PATRICK

Pearl rosaries of pilgrim light

Crept up the mountain and the night

And Cromwell, fastened in his grave,

Could only curse and rant and rave,

For here along the very edge

Of Connacht grew a living hedge

Of faith more ancient than the spell

Of Christ descending into hell.

And here before the Christ was born,

Before the memory was torn,

Before we put a foreign name

Upon our mountain and our claim,

This people and their gods were one

With all that lived beneath the Sun,

And Connacht lived by day and night

Without the snakes of fear and fright.

I came here in my eager youth,

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Full of its fright and of its truth

And in the snake of pilgrim feet

I found what I had come to meet,

The past in me that always stirred,

And voices in me always heard

And on that mountain saw the whole

Of Connacht fastened to my soul.

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TRUE TO MYSELF

William Brendan McPhillips

All human identity depends on genes, sense, influence, culture, education, nourishment and climate, and all of these integrated in consciousness, and sometimes in art. For me, in poetry and in life, integration of the self and the ever expanding diverse elements of nature and human community demand growth. The heart may fail as a pump, but not as a well, as a metaphor for the common bond.

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Note: Not Used In Music CD Program Readings

THE CAPITALIZATION OF BALLAGHADERREEN(excerpt)

In stories told we give the mind a spanAnd know we set our future in the past,

But no one knows where Celtic lore beganOr why apocalypse was never cast.

We only know we came across the seaAnd found the others who were here before

And after us came others making meAn heir to all of us and them and more.

And as there was no starting point begun,Nor time when gods were only mine to hear,

Then when we do go out beyond the SunWe'll have Dé Danaan whispers in our ear.

THE CAPITALIZATION OF BALLAGHADERREEN

You have to wonder what it was that broughtThe ancients in from river, ford and flood,The wells suggest a purpose, often sought

In mystic sensings hidden in the blood.

A river would as often set the siteOf towns and future cities, here instead

A place without complete clear logic mightArouse some wonderings, we never said.

Why here? And not along the banks to growAround young lovers born to kiss and tell,

Or, just as often, never meant to knowOutside of shadows, poetry and hell.

Much further up the hill the scene was spreadAcross the lines of counties, parish, allMere jurisdiction notioned into head

Against the proof of swallow, wind and call.

The call of corncrake, cuckoo, wanderlust,Was never bound by narrow vision bent

Around itself, as if the larger mustSaved December 1, 2010 22

Somehow diminish love before it went.

And many did go far from where the oakOnce dropped its seed down near the foot of hill,

And far beyond where curve of river brokeThe fields of Banada from Ballagh' 'til

The bridges made the river crossing swiftAs ever crow or magpie made the tripTo where this gathering of houses liftThe sounds of life to poetry and lip.

And tales of long remembered stories leaptFrom mouths, not always known to be so quick

To break the Wintered silence when it creptAcross the boreens, bogs and dance of wick.

There was the time when who we were was whoWe told ourselves, the old ones told us what

Was told to them, the telling made us doWithin ourselves the stuff that later got

Outside in action, deed, and science, art,The whole of what we call the civic act,Creating all the human from the start

Believed conceived within some ancient pact.

When this so small, so all encompassed townBegins to be beyond the reach of those

Who long ago would name its houses, crownIt chief among the dreamers, West, and crows.

Not that it was beyond the breech of sideOn either side of issues, conflict, cause,The differences split us deep and wide,Revealing human lesions, human flaws.

The odd idyl, but not idyllic life,Was known to us, this present, past and more,Was what it was, imperfect, peace and strife,As we would have them, only weather bore

No guilty conscience. Praying rain or SunTo bring the harvest home, was done in trust,

But rarely ever saw the wanted done,The course of nature took its course unfussed.

This never rivered town began to beInside of us, by generations grown

Against the logic, deep intended freeTo find it is what it had always known.

Here on the Eastern slope of Bockagh Hill,In from the River Lung, and treeless, bare,

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Assembled memories grown into will,Will build on ancient dreams we came to share.

21 February, 2000

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The Phoenix: Reconstructed Khmer Rock

Editorial Reviews (AMAZON)Amazon.comAt last, Dengue Fever has made an album that quite nearly matches their incredible live performances. The group began at least as a tribute to the playful yet heavy psychedelic pop scene that flourished in Cambodia before Pol Pot came to power and silenced countless suspected dissidents in that country's infamous killing fields in the mid-1970s. Like the Cambodian pop music that so enamored them, Dengue Fever began by revitalizing strong elements of '60s surf and garage rock in their sound. Over time, they've expanded their influences to Ethiopian funk and modern dance-rock. Once a multi-culti California band with a Cambodian-born singer paying homage to the past, Dengue Fever now plays original, swirling, psychedelic pop. With Western audiences ever more open to hybrid sounds, it will be a huge surprise if Venus on Earth doesn't allow Dengue Fever to quit their day jobs for good, especially after the film about their trip to Cambodia, Sleepwalking through the Mekong, hits the festival circuit in 2008. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description"A unique and surprisingly danceable group that combines a beautiful Khmer-language vocalist from Cambodia and a quintet of seasoned locals with a knack for mixing Southeast Asian pop, Vietnam-war-era lounge music, klezmer, ska, surf rock, and Ethiopian jazz." -- SPIN

psychedelic. They are world music. They are anything but mainstream. There is virtually no other band in the world playing "Khmer Rock," the style of 1960s Cambodian rock derived from Armed Forces Radio in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Sophomore album Venus On Earth features eleven original songs that expand on the band's sound but will please hardcore fans of both the group and the genre. There is no other band like Dengue Fever, which garners fans in everyone from indie kids to well-heeled world music consumers.

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About the Sixteenth Century Polish Court --King Sigismund II, Enlightened Monarch of Poland

And his successors for 50+ years

Dissertation (Lithuania – GDL) – Sodertorn University (Sweden) – Andrej Kotlarchuk

http://www.diva-portal.org/sh/undergraduate/abstract.xsql?dbid=638 [Then click word Fulltext in red.]

SÖDERTÖRN DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 4In the Shadows of Poland and RussiaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden in the

European Crisis of the mid-17th Century

A new dissertation was written in 2006 by a student/researcher from Sodertorn University (Sweden) (360 pages). It re-evaluates the previously negative view taken by Polish historians of the 1600s edition of the distinguished 500 year old Lithuanian Radziwill family from Birzai, of wealth and government service that part of became Unitarians, the most radical formulation of the European Reformation.

See pages 42-76. Especially the 1588 law in Poland/Lithuania guaranteeing tolerance to all Christian churches.

See p. 66 – “In our country there exist large differences in the understanding of Christianity” (see full quote below);

p.64 – Peter Block has argued that most of the Lithuanian Brethren …On the lands of the Radziwills the Arians held offices and had patrimonies…”;

p. 69 – In 1648 the Catholic majority … attempted to pass a law excluding … the Arians [Unitarians] [but was defeated];

p. 74 – “Tolerance was the main principle of the Radziwills.”  [Note: Page numbers refer to the PDF file, not the original page numbers of the Dissertation.]

KEY QUOTATION FROM THE DISSERTATION

p. 66: (referring to 1588 era – early 1600s) –

(1) Quote from the Polish Constitution:

In our country there exist large differences in the understanding of Christianity. Thus we want to prevent any conflicts and wars between our people, which we so clearly observe in other kingdoms. Therefore, we have decided for this reason to forever keep the peace in the country and not spill human blood in our churches.

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(2) Quote from a religious visitor

By Eliazar Gilbert, minister to Janusz Radziwill and preacher to the Scottish congregation in Kedainiai, wrote about the tradition of tolerance that existed in Lithuania, and which was unusual in Europe:

“The great City of Vilna … There be also therein many Religious professed and tolerated. Where unto also belong many Churches and places of Divine worship, as a Synagogue to the Jews, where of there be many thousands in this City; a Ruthenian [Orthodox] Church to the Rusins; a Mahometan Church to the Tartarians; a Church to the Lutherans; … all which do enjoy their exercise of Religion without trouble or interruption…” Also mentioned are Calvinist and Romish [Roman Catholic]…”

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King Sigismund II Augustus of PolandAnd Grand Duke of Lithuania (from Wikipedia)

Sigismund II Augustus I[1] (Polish: Zygmunt II August I, Ruthenian: Żygimont III Awgust I, Lithuanian: Žygimantas III Augustas I, German: Sigismund II. August; 1 August 1520 — 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. Married three times, the last of the Jagiellons remained childless, and thus the Union of Lublin introduced Elective monarchy.

Contents

[hide]

1 Royal titles 2 Biography

3 Ancestors

4 Marriages and children

5 Mistresses

6 Patronage

7 References

8 See also [edit] Royal titles

Royal titles, in Latin: "Sigismundus Augustus Dei gratia rex Poloniae, magnus dux Lithuaniae, nec non terrarum Cracoviae, Sandomiriae, Siradiae, Lanciciae, Cuiaviae, Kijoviae, Russiae, Woliniae, Prussiae, Masoviae, Podlachiae, Culmensis, Elbingensis, Pomeraniae, Samogitiae, Livoniae etc. dominus et haeres."

English translation: "Sigismund Augustus, by the Grace of God, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Lord and heir of the Lands of Cracow, Sandomierz, Sieradz, Łęczyca, Kuyavia, Kiev, Hereditary Lord of Ruthenia, Volhynia, Royal Prussia, Masovia, Podlachia, Culmer Land, Elbing, Pomerania, Samogitia, Livonia etc."

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Sigismund II Augustus. Drawing by Jan Matejko

From the outset of his reign, Sigismund came into collision with the country's szlachta (gentry), who had already begun curtailing the power of the great families. The ostensible cause of the szlachta's animosity to the King was his second marriage, secretly contracted before his accession to the throne, with the beautiful Lithuanian Calvinist, Barbara Radziwiłł, daughter of Hetman Jerzy Radziwiłł.

But the real forces behind the movement seem to have been the Austrian court and Sigismund's own mother, Bona Sforza, and so violent was the agitation at Sigismund's first sejm (October 31, 1548) that the deputies threatened to renounce their allegiance unless the King repudiated his wife Barbara. He refused, and his moral courage and political dexterity won the day.

By 1550, when Sigismund summoned his second sejm, a reaction had begun in his favor, and the szlachta was rebuked by Piotr Kmita, Marshal of the Sejm, who accused them of attempting to unduly diminish the legislative prerogatives of the crown.

The death of Queen Barbara, five months after her coronation (December 7, 1550), under distressing circumstances which led to a suspicion that she had been poisoned by Bona Sforza, compelled Sigismund to contract a third, purely political union with his first cousin, the Austrian archduchess Catherine, also the sister of his first wife, Elisabeth, who had died within a year of her marriage to him, while he was still only crown prince.

The third bride was sickly and unsympathetic, and Sigismund soon lost all hope of children by her — to his despair, for as he was the last male Jagiellon in the direct line, the dynasty was threatened with extinction. He sought to remedy this by liaisons with two of the most beautiful of his countrywomen, Barbara Giżanka and Anna Zajączkowska. The sejm was willing to legitimatize, and acknowledge as Sigismund's successor, any male heir who might be born to him; however, the King was to die childless.

Death of Barbara Radziwiłł Painting by Józef Simmler

The King's marriage was a matter of great political import to Protestants and Catholics alike. Had Sigismund not been so good a Catholic, he might have imitated Henry VIII of England by pleading that his detested third wife was the sister of his first wife, and that consequently the union was uncanonical. The Polish Protestants hoped that he would do so and thus bring about a breach with Rome at the very crisis of the religious struggle in Poland; while the Habsburgs, who coveted the Polish throne, raised every obstacle to the childless King's remarriage.Saved December 1, 2010 29

Not till Queen Catherine's death (February 28, 1572) was Sigismund set free, but less than six months later he would follow her to the grave.

Sigismund's reign was a period of internal turmoil and external expansion.

He saw the invasion of Poland by the Reformation, and the democratic upheaval that placed all political power in the hands of the szlachta; he saw the collapse of the Knights of the Sword in the north (which led to the Republic's acquisition of Livonia) and the consolidation of Turkey's power in the south. Throughout this perilous transitional period, Sigismund successfully steered the ship of state amid the whirlpools that constantly threatened to engulf it. A less imposing figure than his father, the elegant and refined Sigismund II Augustus was nevertheless an even greater statesman than the stern and majestic Sigismund I the Old.

Death of Sigismund II at Knyszyn, by Jan Matejko, 1886, oil on canvas, National Museum, Warsaw.

Sigismund II possessed to a high degree the tenacity and patience that seem to have characterized all the Jagiellons, and he added to these qualities a dexterity and diplomatic finesse which he may have inherited from his Italian mother. No other Polish king seems to have so thoroughly understood the nature of the Polish sejm. Both the Austrian ambassadors and the papal legates testify to the care with which he controlled his nation. Everything went as he wished, they said, because he seemed to know everything in advance. He managed to get more money than his father ever could, and at one of his sejms he won the hearts of the assembly by unexpectedly appearing before them in the simple grey coat of a Masovian squire. Like his father, a pro-Austrian by conviction, he contrived even in this respect to carry with him the nation, always distrustful of the Germans, and thus avoided serious complications with the dangerous Turks.

Sigismund II mediated for twenty years between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants without alienating the sympathies of either. His most striking memorial, however, may have been the Union of Lublin, which finally made of Poland and Lithuania one body politic, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth — the "Republic of the Two Nations" (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów, Lithuanian: Abiejų Tautų Respublika). Also, German-speaking Royal Prussia and Prussian cities were included. This achievement might well have been impossible without Sigismund.

Sigismund died at his beloved Knyszyn on July 6, 1572, aged 52. In 1573, Henry III of Valois was elected as King of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth for a few months, but then returned to France where he was crowned as King Henry III of France. Shortly thereafter, Sigismund's sister Anna of Poland married Stefan Batory, and they ruled as King and Queen of Poland.

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Besides very close family connections, Sigismund II was especially allied to the Imperial Habsburgs by his pledge as member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

[edit] Ancestors

     

     

     

         

 

Jogaila 

         

 

Casimir IV Jagiellon  

 

     

         

 

Sophia of Halshany 

         

 

Sigismund I the Old  

 

     

     

         

 

Albert II of Germany 

         

 

Elisabeth of Austria  

 

     

         

 

Elisabeth II of Bohemia 

         

 

Sigismund II Augustus  

 

                           

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Galeazzo Maria Sforza 

         

 

Gian Galeazzo Sforza  

 

     

         

 

Bona of Savoy 

         

 

Bona Sforza  

 

     

     

         

 

Alfonso II of Naples 

         

 

Isabella of Naples  

 

     

         

 

Ippolita Maria Sforza 

         

[edit] Marriages and children

He married three times:

On May 5, 1543, Sigismund married his first wife Elisabeth of Austria (July 9, 1526 - June 15, 1545), eldest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.

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Between July 28 and August 6, 1547, Sigismund married his second wife Barbara Radziwiłł (December 6, 1520 - May 8, 1551).

In the summer of 1553, Sigismund married Catherine of Austria (September 15, 1533 - February 28, 1572), a younger sister of his first wife.

[edit] Mistresses

Diana di Cordona Miss Weiss

Miss Relska

o daughter

Zuzanna Orłowska

Anna Zajączkowska

Barbara Giżycka

o Barbara - married Jakub Zawadzki

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Relationships Between Radziwill Family, Jagiellonian Kings, and Transylvanian Unitarian King

(1540-1570)

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