Well, I suspect that this entry won't be as exciting as the headline promises.
Every January and May - months that coincide with the Harvard final exam schedule - the campus radio station (WHRB) runs 'round the clock broadcasts presenting comprehensive (and often complete) recordings associated with different figures, covering a wide range of musical periods and styles.
This May, for example, there are long retrospectives of works by Ives, Nielsen, Resphigi, and Mingus (yahoo!), in addition to recorded opera broadcasts from La Scala, and works by different composers conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. The Nina Simone orgy also should not be missed.
Full orgy listings can be viewed here. WHRB streams its broadcast over the internet, so sit back and enjoy the ride!
Update: I neglected to mention that the use of "orgy" as a description of this programming is WHRB's, not my own. From the station's website:
Legend has it that the WHRB Orgy tradition began over fifty-five years ago, in the Spring of 1943. At that time, it is said that one Harvard student, then a staff member of WHRB, returned to the station after a particularly difficult exam and played all of Beethoven's nine symphonies consecutively to celebrate the end of a long, hard term of studying. The idea caught on, and soon the orgy concept was expanded to include live Jazz and Rock Orgies, as well as a wide variety of recorded music.
Today, the word "orgy" is primarily imagined in a sexual context, but earlier applications of the word would have been more broadly sensual. From the OED:
1. Gr. and Rom. Antiq. Secret rites or ceremonies practised in the worship of various deities of Greek and Roman mythology; esp. those connected with the festivals in honour of Dionysus or Bacchus, or the festival itself, which was celebrated with extravagant dancing, singing, drinking, etc.
2. transf. Applied to any rites, ceremonies, or secret observances, religious or otherwise; with or without implication of extravagance or licence.
3. Feasting or revelry, esp. such as is marked by excessive indulgence or licence; wild or dissolute revels; debauchery; often in sing. A drunken or licentious revel.
Sounds good to me!
Posted by gminter at May 5, 2004 01:37 AM