While you read the following article why not listen to my e-baroque compositions – just click on the box below:

or if techno music is more your cup of tea here are my techno/ambient compositions:

I hope you find the article below interesting…please visit chrisduggleby.com again.

I would like to dedicate this weeks blog and a rather special piece of music to my father John Duggleby who at the same time as I was putting the finishing touches to the video was celebrating his 78th birthday.

Let me explain first a little more about the music. It was originally written as a duet in 1736 by the Italian baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. He wrote the piece during the final weeks of his life while he was dying from tuberculosis. Pergolesi died from the illness on March 16th 1736 aged only 26.

‘Fac ut Ardeat‘ is one of the twelve parts of Pergolesi’s musical arrangement for the Stabat Mater Dolorosa, a Catholic hymn from the thirteen century about the sorrows of Mary at the crucifixion on Jesus. Like my earlier interpretation of Allegri’s ‘Miserere Mei Deus’ this piece is also normally performed in Catholic religious ceremonies during the Easter period (if you would like to read about, and hear, my version of Allegri’s inspiring piece please check out my video using the link here).

Pergolesi’s ‘Stabat Mater’ was incredibly popular during the eighteenth century becoming one of the most published works at that time. Johann Sebastian Bach used it as the basis for his cantata ‘Tilger, Höchster, meine Sünden‘ (in English: ‘Root out my sins, Highest one’).

Here is the video of my rendition of this celestial work:

If you are interested in the original lyrics for this duet (which I have rearranged for the TRANSFORMATES 變 Digital Choir) they are (in Latin) as follows:

Fac, ut ardeat cor meum in amando Christum Deum ut sibi complaceam.

which in English means:

Make me feel as thou hast felt; make my soul to glow and melt with the love of Christ my Lord.

You will notice from the video that I have incorporated some 3D digital artwork – I hope you find it appropriate for this music. Here are some of the stills:

Coming back to my father for whom this musical interpretation is dedicated I did check out with him during our birthday lunch what was his secret of longevity. He is convinced that the Duggleby’s benefit from a longevity gene since many of his forbears also had long life spans (his elder sister June is still very active with her extended family in Yorkshire). His own personal secret is that he has lived a very active life since taking retirement by regularly buying and renovating English houses (he has just bought yet another piece to ‘do up’ as part of this life extending hobby).

And what do you buy a very fit and active 78 year old for his birthday?  Well a VGA cable of course. Now he can hook up his laptop to the TV and read my blogs (and the football results!) on the big screen. Hopefully I have not started a major confrontation in my parental home – my mother was quite happy to let him play on his lap top while she did some serious viewing on the TV. We may need to consider investing in a second TV!

Greetings from the European Duggleby clan.

Chris Duggleby

PS you probably noticed that this latest baroque interpretation, like the one by Allegri, featured another stunning performance from the TRANSFORMATES 變 Digital Choir. I am starting to worry that if their popularity grows they are going to end up doing international arena tours without me. You can easily access all my baroque interpretations by using the following link to my dedicated ‘classical’ play list on YouTube: