The Pantheon

Does someone want to take me on a trip to Rome? I've always dreamed of experiencing this building in person.

And this song (Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis) would be perfect to hear in this space. This has got to be one of my ultimate favourites and has been since I discovered it years ago. I was in Ottawa about a year ago and they had this as an installation piece in the Chapel in the National Gallery of Canada. Each of the 40 voices was piped through an individual speaker, so you could walk around the room and hear each voice individually: GORGEOUS!

I couldn't find the version by the Oxford Camerata that I like--this version is a bit fast for my taste. It's just over 2 minutes faster than my recording. 

The Dying Gaul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Gaul

This statue captured my attention as a teenager and I still love it. I have always been intrigued by the realistic look of rather stunned pain --I've always wondered what kind of story this statue might tell if it came to life somehow.

The Dying Gladiator

(from "childe harold's pilgrimage")

I see before me the Gladiator lie:
He leans upon his hand - his manly brow
Consents to death, but conquers agony,
And his droop'd head sinks gradually low -
And through his side the last drops, ebbing slow
From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,
Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now
The arena swims around him - he is gone,
Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hail'd the wretch who won.

He heard it, but he heeded not - his eyes
Were with his heart, and that was far away;
He reck'd not of the life he lost nor prize,
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay,
There were his young barbarians all at play,
There was their Dacian mother - he, their sire,
Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday -
All this rush'd with his blood - Shall he expire
And unavenged? - Arise! ye Goths, and glut your ire!


George Gordon Lord Byron . 1788-1824