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On-demand interviews with local and national classical music artists.

Music to Accompany the Solar Eclipse

Jay Pasachoff / Allen Davis / Vojtech Rusin / Miloslav Druckmüller
November 3, 2013, solar eclipse as seen from Gabon, Africa

On Monday March 8, be sure to be listening at 3pm for a sequence of classical pieces designed to accompany the Solar Eclipse.

We'll begin with a work by William Grant Still whose title—Darker America—takes on a new context in light (or lack of it) of the celestial event.

Then, Total Eclipse, Samson's famous aria from Act 1 of Handel's 1743 oratorio, Samson.

During totality, we have the otherworldly sound of two countertenors singing In Darkness Let Me Dwell by the Englishman John Cooper.

As daylight begins to reappear, what else? A classic Beatles' tune arranged for guitarist Milos Karadaglic.

And finally, for the day's second dawn. the Prelude from Modest Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina, an orchestral passage known as Dawn on the Moscow River.

Have a happy and safe Eclipse!

03:01:00 William Grant Still: Darker America (1924)

03:14:50 George Frideric Handel: Samson: Total Eclipse (1743)

03:18:19 John Cooper: In darkness let me dwell (1609)

03:23:17 George Harrison (arr Sérgio Assad): Here Comes the Sun (1969)

03:26:17 Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina: Prelude 'Dawn on the Moscow River' (1873)