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Re: Lydia has been peeking around corners of late, so...
What that verse refers to is music, specifically the Lydian mode, presumably (i.e. F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F; or C, D, E, F#, G, A, B, C), with a distinctively bright raised fourth scale degree. Typically, the Lydian mode is the happiest, even more then the regular Ionian mode (major scale). Its sonorities are most frequently used at the beginnings of films to set a hopeful, whimsical sentiment.It is a beautiful name, but I have a negative association with it unfortunately. I have always admired the combo Lydia Margaret.

This message was edited 7/6/2015, 4:17 AM

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Handel wrote an Oratorio by the name of Alexander's Feast. Handel was a master of melody and modulation - creating that heavenly appeal; if interested - try the five-minute aria: "War He Sung is Toil & Trouble" with Emma Kirkby - soprano and Christopher Hogwood conducting the baroque orchestra using 'period instruments'. Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures:
War, he sung, is toil and trouble;
Honour, but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying:
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think it worth enjoying;
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,
Take the good the gods provide thee...
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Lovely piece :) I have a recording.
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I have it as well - "Emma Kirkby sings Mrs Arne": While I love Handel above all baroque Opera - I also enjoy the tunes by Thomas Arne using texts from Comus. Have you heard Handel's Semele?
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This made me really happy, and I don't know why. I simply appreciate your knowledge, I suppose.
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:)
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