World premiere performance by VB8 of Christmas Carol by Elizabeth Ekholm (2019), December 18, 2021, UQAM Pavillon Sherbrooke, Montréal, QC
Sound Engineer : Stratsimir Dimitrov

Bronwyn Thies-Thompson, Kimberley Lynch, Angèle Trudeau, Maddie Studt, Haitham Haidar, Andrew Gray, John Giffen, William Kraushaar.

Christmas Carol, Elizabeth Ekholm // VB8

C/o Larsson(Maria Lindström/Mats Dimming): Ett

Mucklorna

Musik till dansföreställningen "Interaktion". Projekt Elauda.

Projekt Elauda - Interaktion: Del 1

C/o Larsson(Maria Lindström/Mats Dimming): Trana

Salvator Mundi (motet for 5 voices) by Thomas Tallis

arranged for 5 part oboe choir (4 oboes plus english horn)

Salvator Mundi - Thomas Tallis

Beef tongue, fresh or brined, simmered with peppercorns and garlic, then sliced thin and piled between two slices of rye bread, is proof that manna actually existed. As a kid, I detested it. Watching my parents eat tongue not only turned my stomach; it made my own tongue itch. Now that my antipathy towards this best of deli meats has reversed itself, I find that tongue has been dropped from a surprising number of deli menus—as in Ottawa, where the incident that inspired this song took place.

So How Come You Don’t Have Tongue? 
© 2002 I. Sheldon Posen  Well Done Music  BMI

I was in a kosher deli, it was just the other day
When an old man called the waiter and I overheard him say
“I’m looking at the menu and the specials on the wall
“And I can’t find a thing to eat, ’cause there’s no tongue at all!”
You’ve got turkey and pastrami, you’ve got latkes and salami
You’ve got pickled peppers packed in jars and crocks
You’ve got gribines and knishes, and a zillion kinds of fishes
(I see whitefish, sable, cisco, carp, and lox)
You’ve got vursht-and-eggs and knakers fressed by all the alte kakers
You’ve got kishka, helzl, fricassee, and lung
You’ve got gefilte fish and khreyn, you’ve got seltzer (“two cents plain”)
So how come you don’t have tongue? 

I looked the menu over and I saw that he was right
There was not a single reference to any “tongue” in sight
And just like him I’d always thought, of deli it was king
So, khalishing for tongue on rye, I too began to sing:
You’ve got coleslaw and dill pickle, you’ve got rye and pumpernickel
You’ve got jars of prunes that always get results 
You’ve got smoked meat by the platter that you trim up lean or fatter
I get heartburn just imagining the shmaltz
You’ve got kneydelakh and kugel for the spendthrift and the frugal
You’ve got khalaptches whose praise is widely sung
And by all accounts it’s true-ish that deli-wise, you’re Jewish 
So how come you don’t have tongue?

By now the other customers had turned their heads our way
And listened to our plea for deli justice and fair play
Then all for one and one for all they rallied to our cause
And so we sang our song again to thunderous applause:
You’ve got corned beef on the slicer and it couldn’t be much nicer
You’ve got kreplakh that’ll make a tasty snack
You’ve got miltz and pickled herring, and ptcha (now that is daring)
And chopped liver that’s an instant heart attack
You’ve got tcholent, meat or parev, so that no one they should “stareve”
You’ve got waiters who were old when they were young
You’ve got borshtch and matzabray and every kind of khazeray—
So how come you don’t have tongue?

Manna

So How Come You Don't Have Tongue

À l’époque des camps de bûcherons, la culture musicale du Pontiac n’avait rien à envier au folklore de Terre-Neuve ou du reste du Québec. La chanson The Chapeau Boys, du musicien pontissois Patrick Gregg, voyageait de bouche à oreille dans les chantiers du nord-est de l’Amérique du Nord.

Cet épisode a été réalisé par André Martineau.

Découvrez les histoires oubliées ou méconnues des artistes et des oeuvres qui ont marqué la culture de l’Outaouais des cent dernières années! Les réalisateurs André Martineau et Marie-Hélène Frenette-Assad vous racontent leurs découvertes en compagnie de l’animateur Julien Morissette. L’Histoire secrète de l’Outaouais est un projet de Culture Outaouais réalisé et produit par Transistor Média en collaboration Tourisme Outaouais, la Ville de Gatineau, le ministère de la Culture et des Communications et la MRC de la Vallée-de-la-Gatineau.

The Chapeau Boys, l’hymne du Pontiac

"This Is It!" #15 The complete piano music of Neely Bruce. This piece is a quasi-random scramble of fragments of dozens of Schubert waltzes. The waltzes themselves were also chosen at random. Sometimes the right and left hands are coordinated, more often they are not. Photocopies of the waltzes were cut up and taped together according to the taste of the composer. All key signatures have been removed, resulting in a giant pandiatonic collage, played entirely on the white keys. The composer acknowledges his profound love of the original Schubert miniatures, which he first heard played by Leonard Fletcher in the early 1960s in Birmingham, Alabama. He also acknowledges his debt to the Liszt "Soirée de Vienne" and Ravel's "Valses nobles et sentimentales."

Furniture Music in the Form of Mutilated Schubert Waltzes

Sometimes you start to worry about someone who seems deliriously power-hungry. Sometimes you write a song about it. This is me, Nancy White, singing, with Ghislain Aucoin on (grand) piano. Recorded by David Woodhead. (Warning: relentless Canadian content.)

So How Come You Don't Have Tongue

Shelley Posen

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