It has been another amazing month with The Chic Assignment. I just love how these assignments accompany us through the month with beauty and loveliness.
Today, I'm going deeper into the assignments to share my findings with you.
Chic Assignment no. 1: Listen to: Sicilienne in E flat major by Maria Theresia von Paradis
The hauntingly beautiful melody of Sicilienne in E flat major carried me through the month. I often had it on a playlist and just listened to various renditions of it. The great thing about listening to a piece of music like this periodically throughout the month, is that you will never forget the composer or the nuance of the song. Your children will also remember! Here are a few more excellent renditions to share:
I love this rendition from MusicForums
and this one by Ginette Niveau is truly beautiful.
Here is her interesting biography, as chronicled by
Robert Cummings
Maria Theresia von Paradis was a remarkable figure in music history, for not only did she attain significant triumphs as both a composer and performer -- rare enough achievements for a woman living in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe -- but she had to cope with the dreadful handicap of blindness.
Maria Theresia von Paradis was born in Vienna on May 15, 1759. Her father, Joseph Anton von Paradis, was Imperial Secretary of Commerce under Empress Maria Theresia, after whom young Maria was named. When Maria was two she began losing her eyesight, and by the age of five she was blind.
She studied with Antonio Salieri (who composed an organ concerto for her 1773), Leopold Kozeluch, and Karl Frieberth. Treatments by Anton Mesmer in 1776-1777 offered hope her vision might partially be restored, but after 1777 she had to resign herself to a life of total blindness.
By this time she had already established a career as a pianist and singer in Viennese concert halls and salons. Moreover, she had gained respect from the most prominent composers and musicians of the day, including Mozart. By some accounts, his Piano Concerto No. 18 (K. 456) was written for her.
In 1783-1784 she toured Paris, London, and various German cities. In 1785 she helped found, with Valentin Hauy, a school for the blind. Paradis would not turn to composition until the 1780s: the first work that can accurately be attributed to her is the Zwolf Lieder auf ihrer Reise in Musik, dating to the years 1784-1786. The process of composition for Paradis was not simple, but she was aided by use of a composition board developed by Johann Riedinger, who served as librettist for several of her stage works, including the 1791 melodrama Ariadne und Bacchus and the 1792 Der Schulkandidat.
By the late 1780s, Paradis was devoting less time to performance and more to composition. She wrote five operas between 1789 and 1797, as well as numerous other works. Unfortunately, many of her scores have been lost, including two piano concertos and 12 piano sonatas. By 1800 Paradis had begun focusing on teaching, and in 1808 founded a music school for girls in Vienna. For the last decade-and-a-half of her life she taught there and continued to turn out an occasional composition, like the 1811 Fantasie in C for piano.
Chic Assignment no. 2: Enjoy the poetry of Robert Frost
Robert Frost said that "all poems start with a lump in the throat". I certainly get that from his deeply introspective poetry. In fact, you'll see in today's video that I not only have a lump in my throat, but I cry like a baby!
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
BY ROBERT FROST
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Birches
BY ROBERT FROST
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.
I ran across this interview of Robert Frost on YouTube and was fascinated by it. I recommend watching this if you want to know more about the talented Mr. Frost. https://youtu.be/Qem3v0zvajQ
The artist I feature in today's video is Julian Peters, who creates graphic art to accompany famous poetry. He is so talented.
Chic Assignment no. 3: Curate Your Seasonal Accessories
If you haven't already seen my capsule wardrobe accessories video for fall, I recommend watching. I give a lot of fall accessory inspiration.
Chic Assignment no. 4: Switch Out Your Seasonal Decor
I plan to put out my seasonal decor video soon. I am really enjoying the subtle changes in decor and scent in our home.
I hope you enjoy today's video.
News
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Comment of the Week
This week's Dress Code Insanity post sparked a lot of conversation! The most "liked" comment on YouTube came from Heather M., who wrote, "I think we have lost our ability to understand that sometimes you have to do things you may not like, as in, dress for the occasion. Knowing what is appropriate nowadays has gone out the door. We have also become very lazy. I spent more time having my staff have to go home for inappropriate dress. Strappy camisoles are not business casual. Beach shoes are not business casual. Heavy cleavage is not business casual. I know clothing is an investment but it affects the culture in which one works or goes to school or even parents going to pick up their kids. You can dress nicely with items from Walmart, if you try. Brush your teeth, hair, no stained clothing, deodorant helps (men I am talking to you). It's not that difficult. Sorry, we have lost all decorum."
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