All Aboard the Zug!

John Adams is making the funny. With theory jokes! (I have a friend whose been working on a Schenker Sensor.) I can't possibly excerpt it, just go visit his blog.

I am hereby resolved!

This weekend I was listening to Terri Gross's interview with Steven Sondheim, and was struck by a very amazing claim that the musical master made: harmonies can resolve, but melodies cannot. He really said that. Gross was asking about the ending of a song in Sweeny Todd, and asked how Sondheim had picked the final note to sound so unresolved. Sondheim replied that the note couldn't sound unresolved by itself, it was because the harmony was unresolved that the note stuck out. This should be of immense surprise not only to the countless theory text authors who have distinguished between Perfect Authentic Cadences and Imperfect Authentic Cadences, or to every theorist who is an advocate of voice-leading, but also to Carole Krumhansl and her followers who showed through probe-tone experiments that melodies do indeed create expected resolutions. I think Sondheim is relying too much on his piano background, and not enough on the things he learned from Milton Babbitt.

Earlier in the interview he told Gross that "discordant" meant "incorrect" and was not synonymous with "dissonant." Not according to my dictionaries and thesaurus! I got the feeling that Sondheim was really making these statements to act as a high priest of music, creating barriers to the sacred mysteries of melody and harmony through insistence on idiosyncratic jargon. He was putting the layperson in her place, making clear that only a trained adept could comprehend how "Send In the Clowns" was structured.

Try the Thlon!

I completed my first triathlon yesterday, a sprint distance - 400m swim, 20k bike, 5k run - held at Purdue University. I had a lot of fun, and didn't complete embarrass myself, with an overall time of 1:29:32.40. Swimming was okay at 8:44.65, biking a little worse at 46:45.60, running was pretty bad at 31:17.95, and my first transition was awful at 2:44.20. To put it in perspective the first-place winner did his transition in 23.15 seconds. I look forward to doing more of these throughout the summer and into the fall, and will be sure to bore all of you dear readers with my stats that will hopefully improve.

FriPod: Cleveland Orchestra

Continuing the theme of orchestras for TAFTO month, this week's FriPod features the Cleveland Orchestra. As you could see from last week's posting, I've got tons of Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings. When I was growing up and while at Lawrence University, Chicago was THE orchestra to go to. Yes, we had to travel over three hours, and Milwaukee was closer, but Bud Herseth was the man! When I went to the University of Akron for my first master's degree, we often made the trip up to Cleveland to listen to the Cleveland Orchestra. Severance Hall is beautiful, and I loved the sounds of the woodwinds, principal trumpet Michael Sachs, and principal trombone Joe DeSano. Plus I felt smug because I knew how to pronounce "Dohnanyi" from listening to the commercial classical radio station, WCLV.

1. Symphony No. 1 in C minor by Johannes Brahms, conducted by George Szell.
2. Symphony No. 5 in Bb major by Anton Bruckner, conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi.
3. Symphony No. 6 "Tragic" in A minor by Gustav Mahler, conducted by Dohnanyi.
4. Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, conducted by Dohnanyi.
5. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, conducted by Dohnanyi.
6. Le Poème de l'extase by Alexander Scriabin, conducted by Lorin Maazel.
7. Le Sacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring) by Igor Stravinsky, conducted by Pierre Boulez.
8. Petrushka by Stravinsky, conducted by Boulez.

Quick thoughts

I've been swamped with a variety of work that has kept me from the blog, and am still swamped so consider this a quick drive-by.

1) Some students excel at melodic dictations, but are horrible at identifying musical forms. Others have the opposite problem. What cognitive strengths/deficits differentiate these two skills?

2) How can the written word "sound" sincere or insincere? I've read things that I just know I don't trust, but can't point to a particular aspect of the writing that would clue me in. Likewise with reading things that seem very sincere, but again I can't tell why I trust that author.

SunPod: Chicago Symphony Orchestra

It would've been perfect to put this up on Friday, as on the same day that my TAFTO essay was published, I took a friend to see the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. I only have one recording of the ISO, so I couldn't do that for a FriPod, but it still would've been good to feature another orchestra. As it was, after getting my new bike fitted, grading exams, and then going to the concert, I didn't have time to blog. Same thing yesterday, so we have SunPod instead. All of the pieces are performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, so I will only mention the composer, conductor and any soloists.

1) Correspondences by Milton Babbitt, conducted by James Levine.
2) Cantata No. 202 "The Wedding" by J.S. Bach, conducted by Levine with Kathleen Battle.
3) Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 by Bach, conducted by Levine with Adolph Herseth et al.
4) Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 by Bach, conducted by Levine with Donald Peck and Samuel Magad.
5) Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók, conducted by a) Fritz Reiner, b) Georg Solti.
6) Music for String, Percussion and Celesta by Bartók, conducted by Reiner.
7) Hungarian Sketches by Bartók, conducted by Reiner.
8) Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven, conducted by Solti.
9) Symphony No. 1 by Johannes Brahms, conducted by Solti.
10) Symphony No. 2 by Brahms, conducted by Solti.
11) Symphony No. 3 by Brahms, conducted by Solti.
12) Symphony No. 4 by Brahms, conducted by Solti.
13) Academic Festival Overture by Brahms, conducted by Solti.
14) Tragic Overture by Brahms, conducted by Solti.
15) Atlas Eclipticalis by John Cage, conducted by Levine.
16) Variations for Orchestra by Elliott Carter, conducted by Levine.
17) Nocturnes by Claude Debussy, conducted by Solti (1990 and 1992).
18) La Mer by Debussy, conducted by Solti.
19) Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune by Debussy, conducted by Solti.
20) The Planets by Gustav Holst, conducted by Levine.
21) A Faust Symphony by Franz Liszt, conducted by Solti.
22) Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler, conducted by Levine.
23) Symphony No. 5 by Mahler, conducted by Solti.
24) Symphony No. 7 by Mahler, conducted by Solti.
25) Symphony No. 9 in D major by Mahler, conducted by Pierre Boulez.
26) Pictures At An Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, conducted by Solti.
27) Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, conducted by Levine with June Anderson, Bernd Weikl, and Philip Creech.
28) Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninov, conducted by Reiner with Artur Rubinstein.
29) Rhapsody On a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninov, conducted by Reiner with Rubinstein.
30) Spectra for Orchestra by Gunther Schuller, conducted by Levine.
31) Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss, conducted by Daniel Berenboim.
32) Till Eulenspiegel's lustige Streiche by Strauss, conducted by Berenboim.
33) Fireworks by Igor Stravinsky, conducted by Boulez.
34) Quatre Etudes by Stravinsky, conducted by Boulez.
35) Romeo And Juliet Overture by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, conducted by Berenboim.
36) Francesca Da Rimini by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Berenboim.
37) Capriccio Italien by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Berenboim.
38) 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Berenboim.
39) Symphony No. 4 by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Solti.
40) Symphony No. 5 by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Claudio Abbado.
41) Symphony No. 6 by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Claudio Abbado.
42) Marche Slave by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Abbado.
43) Voyevoda by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Abbado.
44) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Richard Wagner, conducted by Solti.

Because it's about ME!

My article is being featured tomorrow at Drew's place, but it is already up at the dedicated TAFTO site. I've been enjoying the other entries, especially seeing all of the sites in Robert Birman's video that my kids and I visited during Spring Break in Louisville. But seriously, read my contribution, because it will BLOW. YOUR. MIND. Though I may have gone a little too far in suggesting that all conductors should wear wet suits...