Blagoslovi Dushe Moya Gospoda (Psalm 102, for the liturgy). Klassika Women’s Chamber Choir

Here is a contemporary setting of the First Stasis of the Typika (Psalm 102 (Septuagint)) sung at the Sunday liturgy. It is sung by the Klassika Women’s Chamber Choir, directed by Nina Korolyova.

Blagoslovi Dushe Moya Gospoda (Psalm 103, Bless the Lord, O My Soul) from the Vigil, opus 37 of Sergei Rakhmaninov. “Optyna Pustyn” Male Chorus

This is perhaps, to my mind, the jewel in the crown of Russian Orthodox choral literature. The soloist does not engage in vocal pyrotechnics, the choral support is effective and firm, the harmonics clear and coherent. The melody is taken from the ancient tradition as found in the Obikhod Notnago Peniya (“Notated Hymns for the Ordinary Round of Services”), the Russian analogue to the Liber Usualis. In this case, Rakhmaninov used the melody of the so-called “Greek Chant” (Grecheskago Rospeva). This is not Greek chant, it is the work of Greek and Greek-trained cantors in Kiev in the 17th century working on Old Russian originals. It is considered one of the four rospevi, or major chant forms (there are also many napevi, minor chant traditions extant).

The flowing melody line is one of the strongest statements to be found in the entire choral literature, both East and West. This setting never fails to move my heart, it makes my soul ache, and the beauty of it has moved me to tears. This is the apex of the choral writing of Rakhmaninov… nay… it is the standard against which all Russian Orthodox music is judged. 

This performance is by the ”Optyna Pustyn” Male Choir, directed by Aleksandr Semyonov. It is not the choir of the Optyna Pustyn Monastery, it is a secular group of lay musicians. The solo, which is set in the original for contralto, is here sung by a counter-tenor, Dmitri Popov.

WaMu Gives New CEO Mega Payout as Bank Fails

Editor’s Foreword:

This is a little off-topic, but, not really. The USA is now facing the same situation that Russia faced in 2000 with its arrogant and grasping oligarchs. Fishman belongs behind bars for this, it is little more than legalised thievery. He is nothing but an American Khodorkovsky and deserves the same treatment.

BMD

******

Nice work… if you can get fired from it. That’s just what one Alan H Fishman might have thought when he woke up Friday morning. Mr Fishman was the new chief executive officer for Washingon Mutual (WaMu), the nation’s largest savings and loan, which was taken over Thursday night by federal bank regulators and quickly dumped in a fire sale to JPMorgan Chase for the Wal-Mart-like price of 1.9 billion dollars (47.622 billion roubles. 1.3 billion euros. 1.03 billion UK pounds).

But, don’t cry for Mr Fishman, who reportedly was sky-high, literally, last night, on a flight from New York to Seattle, when WaMu collapsed. Even though he’s only been on the job for less than three weeks, he’s bailing out with a parachute worth close to 20 million dollars (501.288 million roubles. 13.682 million euros. 10.842 million UK pounds), according to an executive compensation analysis conducted for the New York Times by James F. Reda Associates. That’s right, 20 million dollars for 17 days on the job… and his company failed.

Mr Fishman, who formerly was chairman of Meridian Capital Group, apparently was much coveted by WaMu, which was counting on him to lead the failing thrift out of mortgage troubles that pushed the bank to a 3.3 billion dollar (82.713 billion roubles. 2.258 billion euros. 1.789 billion UK pounds) second-quarter loss. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, WaMu threw a 7.5 million dollar (187.983 million roubles. 5.131 million euros. 4.066 million UK pounds) bonus at Mr Fishman when it hired him on 8 September, and guaranteed him an immediate cash severance of 11.6 million dollars (290.747 million roubles. 7.936 million euros. 6.288 million UK pounds), both of which he gets to keep. He also was eligible for annual bonuses of up to 365 percent of his annual base pay, set at 1 million dollars (25.064 million roubles. 684,000 euros. 542,000 UK pounds), to go with millions of shares of company stock.

Mr Fishman does lose out on a big bonus that would have kicked in had he remained on the job through 2009. Documents show WaMu was going to pay their new boss 8 million dollars (200.515 million roubles. 5.473 million euros. 4.337 million UK pounds) to simply not screw up and get fired, all negotiated as the Seattle-based banking giant’s loses climbed to an estimated 20 billion dollars (501.288 billion roubles. 13.682 billion euros. 10.842 billion UK pounds).

26 September 2008

Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,428641,00.html

Editor’s Afterword:

The deterioration of the American economy since 2001 is palpable, and visible to all. In 2003, I was in Montréal, and the Canadian dollar was worth 0.71 USD. Today, the Canadian dollar is worth 0.97, virtually at parity, and there was a time when the looney went up to 1.08 USD. In 2003, the rouble was at 30 to the dollar, and today it is at 25 to the dollar, a 20 percent drop (this is despite the fact the Russian inflation rate is higher than that in the USA).

This is all due to Bush voodoo economics. Taxes were cut in the midst of a war, hardly a considered decision. Spending increased, and taxes, especially for the rich, fell. We are now facing the inevitable result. The federal budget deficit and the foreign trade deficit are ballooning simultaneously, with no effort on the part of the Bush administration to reign in their mad hegemonic projects in Eastern Europe, massive spending on new high-tech toys for the Pentagon, their lost war in Afghanistan, and the stalemated quagmire in Iraq, all of which are hellishly expensive, not to mention a threatened attack on Iran.

If we do not halt this spendthrift spending, the economy shall collapse, full stop. George Bush, Richard Cheney, John McCain, and Sarah Palin are not going to change course. They all approve of Mr Fishman’s actions, to be sure. It is only free-market capitalism, after all. Do not forget that Ms Palin took approximately 120,000 dollars per year to head a board dealing with energy problems, even though she lacks any real expertise in the field. This is a sign that she not only approves of Mr Fishman’s actions, for she has done the same thing, but, that she shall protect him from any repercussions. Think very deeply on that.

A vote for McCain-Palin is a vote for economic chaos. It is a vote for “the public weal be damned”. I shall not cast such a vote. What about you?

BMD