Ahem.
GO COLTS!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
FriPod: The challenge
I (and all of my pointy-headed musical peers) have been challenged by Phil Ford to "post a randomly-generated Ipod playlist on your blog, with relevant commentary." This is suspiciously like my old attempts at iChing. But I'll play along, especially as that linked iChing has turned out to be scarily applicable.
1. Carmen Suite No. 1: Entr'acte (Act II) Georges Bizet, performed by Herbert von Karajan; Philharmonia Orchestra. Carmen is one of the best operas ever, and this Entr'acte is very charming. When I was at Eastman, I took a class on Intermediate Keyboard Skills. For our final project each of us transcribed a portion of Carmen and performed it in relative order. I chose parts of the Prelude rather than this Entr'acte, but it still brings back good memories.
2. "Did You Ever Cross Over To Sneden's?" Bob Levy. The title track from my undergraduate trumpet professor's latest jazz CD. It features Janet Planet on vocals, a very sentimental song with a sad ending. It is a little predictable for me, but again brings back good memories of the nine years I studied with Bob.
3. "Mood Indigo/Hot And Bothered/Creole Love Call" Duke Ellington From The Best Of Duke Ellington: Centennial Edition. This is old school Ellington, with shimmering winds and dixieland-ish banjo-led rhythm section. The mix of tunes is nice, especially the growling trumpet solo in "Hot And Bothered." The slow-fast-slow arrangement of the medley makes this like a little suite.
4. Breves Rencontres-1 Divertissement Jacques Castérède, performed by Terry Everson, Trumpet; Susan Nowicki, Piano. I love Castérède. I played his Concertino for Trombone and Trumpet on my college roommate's senior recital, and his duet suite with my wife on my graduate recital. His music is so French, but without the sarcasm of Poulenc and the other Six-ers.
5. "Why do the nations" from The Messiah George Friedrich Handel, performed by Samuel Ramey; Andrew Davis, Toronto Symphony, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Just today I read a poem by Theresa of Avila that uses the nations raging line to symbolize emotions and desires warring within ourselves and the divisive nature of the Christian Church post Reformation. Handel gets both meanings across in this aria.
6. "Tabuh Teluh" Sadha Budaya Gamelan Gong Suling from Bali - Gamelan & Kecak. This gamelan piece features pipes and voices rather than percussion. The bright timbres of the pipes keep me from getting lulled by the repetitive nature of the melodic patterns, so I can notice the rhythmic shifts. There is also a subtle accelerando on this piece, an amazing feat with such ambiguous metric accents. It slows back down towards the end. Today I was told to embrace ambiguity. This piece reflects that balance of change and stasis well.
7. "Give Me One Reason" Tracy Chapman from New Beginning. This is one of the only songs by Chapman that I knew before Mary brought this CD into our relationship. Tracy has such an easy approach to the blues, not pop-ified but not hard core blues either. There is a lot hope to this song, tempered by the rules of the blues.
8. Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 "Pastorale" (F Major): I -- Allegro ma non troppo Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by New York Philharmonic - Leonard Bernstein. This is a truly lovely movement, as long as I can keep the dancing cherubs out of my head. Symphony No. 7 remains my favorite, but 3 and 6 both have excellent features. This movement is very restful while remaining Allegro, full of grace and joy.
9. Carnaval: 11. Chiarina Robert Schumann, performed by Claudio Arrau. "Chiarina" was Schumann's nickname for Clara Wieck, then the 15 year-old daughter of his piano teacher, later to become his wife. This is a very complex work, not gushy romanticism or childlike innocence. It is waltz-like, somewhat passionate yet not overly so. It sounds rather unstable, as if Robert isn't sure what his feelings for Clara are yet.
10. "Why Worry" Dire Straits from Brothers In Arms. Yes, almost all of my popular music is very old. This song is not nearly as well known as "Money for Nothing" or " ," but it is very beautiful. It explicitly states to balance opposing forces: "there is laughter after pain, sunshine after rain," and that hope and love will prevail. A good ending to the challenge, Mark Knopfler is telling me to stop worrying, after an introduction that is far too long to get played on the radio.
1. Carmen Suite No. 1: Entr'acte (Act II) Georges Bizet, performed by Herbert von Karajan; Philharmonia Orchestra. Carmen is one of the best operas ever, and this Entr'acte is very charming. When I was at Eastman, I took a class on Intermediate Keyboard Skills. For our final project each of us transcribed a portion of Carmen and performed it in relative order. I chose parts of the Prelude rather than this Entr'acte, but it still brings back good memories.
2. "Did You Ever Cross Over To Sneden's?" Bob Levy. The title track from my undergraduate trumpet professor's latest jazz CD. It features Janet Planet on vocals, a very sentimental song with a sad ending. It is a little predictable for me, but again brings back good memories of the nine years I studied with Bob.
3. "Mood Indigo/Hot And Bothered/Creole Love Call" Duke Ellington From The Best Of Duke Ellington: Centennial Edition. This is old school Ellington, with shimmering winds and dixieland-ish banjo-led rhythm section. The mix of tunes is nice, especially the growling trumpet solo in "Hot And Bothered." The slow-fast-slow arrangement of the medley makes this like a little suite.
4. Breves Rencontres-1 Divertissement Jacques Castérède, performed by Terry Everson, Trumpet; Susan Nowicki, Piano. I love Castérède. I played his Concertino for Trombone and Trumpet on my college roommate's senior recital, and his duet suite with my wife on my graduate recital. His music is so French, but without the sarcasm of Poulenc and the other Six-ers.
5. "Why do the nations" from The Messiah George Friedrich Handel, performed by Samuel Ramey; Andrew Davis, Toronto Symphony, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Just today I read a poem by Theresa of Avila that uses the nations raging line to symbolize emotions and desires warring within ourselves and the divisive nature of the Christian Church post Reformation. Handel gets both meanings across in this aria.
6. "Tabuh Teluh" Sadha Budaya Gamelan Gong Suling from Bali - Gamelan & Kecak. This gamelan piece features pipes and voices rather than percussion. The bright timbres of the pipes keep me from getting lulled by the repetitive nature of the melodic patterns, so I can notice the rhythmic shifts. There is also a subtle accelerando on this piece, an amazing feat with such ambiguous metric accents. It slows back down towards the end. Today I was told to embrace ambiguity. This piece reflects that balance of change and stasis well.
7. "Give Me One Reason" Tracy Chapman from New Beginning. This is one of the only songs by Chapman that I knew before Mary brought this CD into our relationship. Tracy has such an easy approach to the blues, not pop-ified but not hard core blues either. There is a lot hope to this song, tempered by the rules of the blues.
8. Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 "Pastorale" (F Major): I -- Allegro ma non troppo Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by New York Philharmonic - Leonard Bernstein. This is a truly lovely movement, as long as I can keep the dancing cherubs out of my head. Symphony No. 7 remains my favorite, but 3 and 6 both have excellent features. This movement is very restful while remaining Allegro, full of grace and joy.
9. Carnaval: 11. Chiarina Robert Schumann, performed by Claudio Arrau. "Chiarina" was Schumann's nickname for Clara Wieck, then the 15 year-old daughter of his piano teacher, later to become his wife. This is a very complex work, not gushy romanticism or childlike innocence. It is waltz-like, somewhat passionate yet not overly so. It sounds rather unstable, as if Robert isn't sure what his feelings for Clara are yet.
10. "Why Worry" Dire Straits from Brothers In Arms. Yes, almost all of my popular music is very old. This song is not nearly as well known as "Money for Nothing" or " ," but it is very beautiful. It explicitly states to balance opposing forces: "there is laughter after pain, sunshine after rain," and that hope and love will prevail. A good ending to the challenge, Mark Knopfler is telling me to stop worrying, after an introduction that is far too long to get played on the radio.
SSCM (say that five times fast)
The Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music will take place at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, from April 19-22, 2007.
They make theory bigger in Texas
The Texas Society for Music Theory invites your attendance to its 29th annual meeting. The conference will be held at University of Texas at Arlington, in Arlington, Texas, on February 23-24, 2007. The keynote address will be given by L. Poundie Burstein of Hunter College and the Graduate Center at CUNY.
See the website for a preliminary program and registration information.
Four Fantastical, Philosophical Fabulations
The Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relations and the Harvard Memorial Church are pleased to announce their inaugural Harvard-Lyrica Dialogues, "Four Fantastical, Philosophical Fabulations", to be held at 3 p.m. on Wednesdays, in the Pusey Room of the Memorial Church at Harvard University. Topics and presenters are as follows:
February 14, 2007
Dan Albright (Harvard University): "Cosmicomedy in Britten's /A Midsummer Night's Dream/"
February 21, 2007
Paul-André Bempéchat (Harvard University): "Sense and Sensitivity: Earl Kim's /Three Poems in French/"
February 28, 2007
George Gopen (Duke University): "Poetical Chamber Music: the Musication of Poetry in T. S. Eliot's /Four Quartets/"
March 7, 2007
The Rev. Peter J. Gomes (Harvard University): "Diversity through Communion: Easter of the Christian Traditions"
Lovely libations follow the fantastical fabulations.
Admission is free and open to the public.
I want to be in AmerIIIca
If you missed the International Symposium on Latin American Choral Music, or just want to continue that latino groove, there is hope:
Sounds of Latin America: A Day of Papers and Performances
February 9, 2007
The John Jacob Niles Center for American Music Gallery
Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY
8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission free; no registration required.
PROGRAM
8:45-9:00 Opening Remarks
9:00-10:15 Session 1: Brazil
Heidy Ximenes (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky): “Blocos Afros: Musical and Cultural Adaptation in the Modern Carnival of Salvador”
Julie Hill (Assistant Professor, University of Tennesse, Martin): “The Percussion Music of Black Brazil: Social Transformation for the Women and Children of Salvador through Escola Didá”
10:15-10:30 Coffee break
10:30-11:45 Session 2: Brazil and Venezuela
Marshal Gaioso Pinto (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky): “From the Holy Spirit Mass to the São José do Tocantins Credo: An Episode of Brazilian Colonial Music in the State of Goiás”
Laura Pita (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky): “Nationalism and Virtuosity as Allusion in Teresa Carreño’s Piano Compositions”
12:00-1:00 Concert: Contemporary Music of Latin America
Music by Jose Juan Pablo Carreño, Antonio Estevez, Alberto Ginastera, Waldemar Henrique, Marlos Nobre, Astor Piazzola, Diego Vega, and Jose Maria Vitier, directed by César Leal (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky)
2:00-3:15 Session 3: Guatemala and Peru
Nancy Clauter (Associate Professor, University of Kentucky): “The Guatemalan Chirimia: The Oboe of Conquest”
Ellen Leichtman (Eastern Kentucky University): “What’s in a name? The Bolivian huayño”
3:15-3:30 Coffee break
3:30-5:00 Session 4: The Rey M. Longyear Lecture
Dale A. Olsen (Distinguished Research Professor of Ethnomusicology, Florida State University): “Music and Shamanistic Healing among the Warao Indians of the Venezuelan Rainforest”
Sounds of Latin America: A Day of Papers and Performances
February 9, 2007
The John Jacob Niles Center for American Music Gallery
Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY
8:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission free; no registration required.
PROGRAM
8:45-9:00 Opening Remarks
9:00-10:15 Session 1: Brazil
Heidy Ximenes (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky): “Blocos Afros: Musical and Cultural Adaptation in the Modern Carnival of Salvador”
Julie Hill (Assistant Professor, University of Tennesse, Martin): “The Percussion Music of Black Brazil: Social Transformation for the Women and Children of Salvador through Escola Didá”
10:15-10:30 Coffee break
10:30-11:45 Session 2: Brazil and Venezuela
Marshal Gaioso Pinto (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky): “From the Holy Spirit Mass to the São José do Tocantins Credo: An Episode of Brazilian Colonial Music in the State of Goiás”
Laura Pita (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky): “Nationalism and Virtuosity as Allusion in Teresa Carreño’s Piano Compositions”
12:00-1:00 Concert: Contemporary Music of Latin America
Music by Jose Juan Pablo Carreño, Antonio Estevez, Alberto Ginastera, Waldemar Henrique, Marlos Nobre, Astor Piazzola, Diego Vega, and Jose Maria Vitier, directed by César Leal (Ph.D. student, University of Kentucky)
2:00-3:15 Session 3: Guatemala and Peru
Nancy Clauter (Associate Professor, University of Kentucky): “The Guatemalan Chirimia: The Oboe of Conquest”
Ellen Leichtman (Eastern Kentucky University): “What’s in a name? The Bolivian huayño”
3:15-3:30 Coffee break
3:30-5:00 Session 4: The Rey M. Longyear Lecture
Dale A. Olsen (Distinguished Research Professor of Ethnomusicology, Florida State University): “Music and Shamanistic Healing among the Warao Indians of the Venezuelan Rainforest”
Thursday, February 01, 2007
A Concise History of Western Music
This post represents two firsts for me. This is the first book review requested by a publisher specifically for my blog. I haven't been receiving lots of swag like other bloggers, so this feels noteworthy. The second first is being hounded by the author to write the review.
This book is indeed a concise history. Clocking in at 316 pages (not including appendices), Griffiths' coverage of 4500 years of music (45,000 years if you include his Chapter 0) has to be brief. To save room, Griffiths does not give detailed biographies of major composers, and nonmusical history is very sparse (though more is included in the chapters on the Twentieth Century). There is also no world music, and not much popular music, essentially a history of Western Art Music.
Griffiths takes a mostly chronological approach, organizing music history into eight periods. These periods are defined by how the composers conceive of or use time. Each period is described in a brief introduction before longer chapters delve into the details. The first period, "Time whole," deals with music before notation was developed. This short section (necessarily brief as the lack of notation limits our knowledge of what the music sounded like) is followed by the first uses of music notation, "Time measured 1100-1400". I found the descriptions of the theory and the historical developments interesting, but the attempts to describe the emotional content of the music by Leonin and Perotin were not convincing. This lack of aesthetic enthusiasm stands in stark contrast to the excitement Griffiths is able to engender in later works. But many important theorists and treatises are mentioned as well as composers and aesthetic movements, and the descriptions of Machaut's works are excellent.
Griffiths calls the Renaissance "Time sensed 1400-1630." He clearly has an enthusiasm for DuFay, devoting several pages to his life and music. But I was also enticed by the descriptions of Obrecht. Throughout the book, Griffiths does a great job emphasizing how various eras of music were lost and rediscovered, sometimes very late. In the case of Obrecht (1457/8-1505), he "was forgotten soon after his death, and his music was little known until scholars and performers began bringing back into circulation in the 1990s." (p. 62)
The Baroque (through to Rococo) is "Time known 1630-1770." The Classical era was "Time Embraced 1770-1815", the Romantic saw "Time escaping 1815-1907" before it was tangled from 1908-1975. The last section, "Time lost 1975-," is all too short after the seventy pages devoted to the bulk of the Twentieth century. And in those seventy pages Griffiths saw fit to give four pages to Jean Barraqué [who?] while never mentioning George Crumb once. The Romantic era was swamped with names and dates, losing the fine narrative focus of the other sections. But in the last three sections much more social context is given, especially on the interactions of the composers and society.
Forms and structures are described by their emotional or dramatic effects, such as "Sonata as comedy" (chapter 11) or the development of basso continuo to offer flexibility in both instrumentation and tempo as a means of allowing the singer to portray joy and pain in Italian madrigals. (p. 84)
At the end of the book Griffiths includes recommendations for further reading and listening, organized by chapter. The listening recommendations are particularly useful, as I think the primary audience for this book will be listeners looking to expand their repertoires. Students could find it handy when preparing for graduate entrance exams, and I appreciated getting a review of topics that had grown dusty in my noggin. There is also a glossary of terms for the layperson and an index.
Overall, this is a very good book. I will leave any critiques of the musicological research to those more qualified, like Charles T. Downey or Dial 'M', and leave it that I found no glaring errors from my own understandings and found many good insights on connections between composers or genres. It is much better than the Concise Oxford History of Music, which I used to prepare for grad school, and less intimidating than the Grout/Palisca/Burkholder/hut hut hike.
This book is indeed a concise history. Clocking in at 316 pages (not including appendices), Griffiths' coverage of 4500 years of music (45,000 years if you include his Chapter 0) has to be brief. To save room, Griffiths does not give detailed biographies of major composers, and nonmusical history is very sparse (though more is included in the chapters on the Twentieth Century). There is also no world music, and not much popular music, essentially a history of Western Art Music.
Griffiths takes a mostly chronological approach, organizing music history into eight periods. These periods are defined by how the composers conceive of or use time. Each period is described in a brief introduction before longer chapters delve into the details. The first period, "Time whole," deals with music before notation was developed. This short section (necessarily brief as the lack of notation limits our knowledge of what the music sounded like) is followed by the first uses of music notation, "Time measured 1100-1400". I found the descriptions of the theory and the historical developments interesting, but the attempts to describe the emotional content of the music by Leonin and Perotin were not convincing. This lack of aesthetic enthusiasm stands in stark contrast to the excitement Griffiths is able to engender in later works. But many important theorists and treatises are mentioned as well as composers and aesthetic movements, and the descriptions of Machaut's works are excellent.
Griffiths calls the Renaissance "Time sensed 1400-1630." He clearly has an enthusiasm for DuFay, devoting several pages to his life and music. But I was also enticed by the descriptions of Obrecht. Throughout the book, Griffiths does a great job emphasizing how various eras of music were lost and rediscovered, sometimes very late. In the case of Obrecht (1457/8-1505), he "was forgotten soon after his death, and his music was little known until scholars and performers began bringing back into circulation in the 1990s." (p. 62)
The Baroque (through to Rococo) is "Time known 1630-1770." The Classical era was "Time Embraced 1770-1815", the Romantic saw "Time escaping 1815-1907" before it was tangled from 1908-1975. The last section, "Time lost 1975-," is all too short after the seventy pages devoted to the bulk of the Twentieth century. And in those seventy pages Griffiths saw fit to give four pages to Jean Barraqué [who?] while never mentioning George Crumb once. The Romantic era was swamped with names and dates, losing the fine narrative focus of the other sections. But in the last three sections much more social context is given, especially on the interactions of the composers and society.
Forms and structures are described by their emotional or dramatic effects, such as "Sonata as comedy" (chapter 11) or the development of basso continuo to offer flexibility in both instrumentation and tempo as a means of allowing the singer to portray joy and pain in Italian madrigals. (p. 84)
At the end of the book Griffiths includes recommendations for further reading and listening, organized by chapter. The listening recommendations are particularly useful, as I think the primary audience for this book will be listeners looking to expand their repertoires. Students could find it handy when preparing for graduate entrance exams, and I appreciated getting a review of topics that had grown dusty in my noggin. There is also a glossary of terms for the layperson and an index.
Overall, this is a very good book. I will leave any critiques of the musicological research to those more qualified, like Charles T. Downey or Dial 'M', and leave it that I found no glaring errors from my own understandings and found many good insights on connections between composers or genres. It is much better than the Concise Oxford History of Music, which I used to prepare for grad school, and less intimidating than the Grout/Palisca/Burkholder/hut hut hike.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)