18 June—Taking a needed break from all the crap that’s going on everywhere, here’s some beautiful, soothing music. It’s a cavatina for violin and piano by Joachim Raff. What and who? Well you may ask.

“Cavatina” is Italian for “little song.” A vocal or instrumental cavatina is simple and of course melodious, as opposed to, say, an aria. Joachim Raff was a German-Swiss Romantic composer, pianist, orchestrator, and teacher who lived from 1822 to 1882 and was prolific (he composed lots of music . . .), versatile (. . . in many genres), respected, and extremely popular in his day.

That was then. This is now. So relax and enjoy what we have: