My mother recently found a paper I wrote about 10 years ago to accompany a gift of 5 or 6 classical music CDs I gave my parents for Christmas. I thought it would make for embarrassing reading but it’s not that bad. I thought since it is about music it would make for a good post. Hope it’s not too long for you guys.
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I thought I would give you a little historical perspective on the music I'm giving you. I've always found it interesting to know more about the composers of the music and the eras in which they composed. Since I'm doing this chronologically, the first composer I should talk about is Johann Sebastian Bach.
The disc I've given you is a collection of organ pieces including one of his most famous works - Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Bach's birth and death dates (1685-1750) span the Baroque era and his death is generally considered the end of that period. An important compositional technique associated with music of the Baroque era is the fugue style. In the fugue style, a melody line is played, and then echoed by the player in other registers, entering at different moments and creating contrast to the original melody. Sometimes the melody is played in its original form, sometimes up-side down or even backwards. This technique forms the basis of much Baroque musical composition including the masses for chorus and orchestra Bach composed. The only difference with choral works is that you would have each voice part (SATB) singing the original melody, but entering at different times in the music to create interesting harmonic relationships. For his experimentation in musical theory and for developing a systematic treatment of tonality (key signatures), Bach is considered the father of western music.
Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759), a contemporary of Bach, was himself a major figure in the Baroque era. The two led quite different musical lives, however. Bach composed most of his music for Lutheran church services in Germany, whereas Handel began his career in Italy learning to write opera - a secular form. Most of Handel's life was spent writing Italian opera for audiences in London in the early 1700's. During this time, Italian opera was popular everywhere in Europe. Around the 1730's, however, it lost its popularity in England due to a new religious conservatism as well as a wave of cultural nationalism. English audiences wanted a new vocal music form, the borrowed style of the Italians having lost its appeal. So in 1741 Handel composed Messiah, and in doing so ushered in a new era - that of the sacred oratorio style.
Oratorio is similar to opera in that it features virtuoso soloists supported by a full chorus and orchestra, but unlike opera in that there is no action on stage. In light of the new religious conservatism, the texts for the oratorios were generally taken from or inspired by the Bible, and in order to please English speaking audiences, Handel set them in English. In composition, Handel continued to employ the same techniques he had used to compose opera, complete with grand choruses and aria-like melodies, some of which he borrowed directly from his failed operas. The result - a vocal music form that would become a tradition among English composers, and with Messiah a work of such tremendous popularity in the English speaking world as to warrant widespread annual performances of the work even today.
A close runner-up to the Messiah among the most popular choral works of all time is of course the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth symphony - the Ode to Joy. The Ninth Symphony, which sets itself apart from other symphonic works by including a chorus in its final movement, is the flagship of the German Romantic movement in music. The text of the fourth movement is taken from a poem by Heinrich Schiller, a contemporary of Beethoven, and is a testimony to universal love and brotherhood. The Ninth is considered Beethoven's crowning achievement - a heroic expression of the passions which move mankind.
Beethoven's birth and death dates (1770-1827) encompass the early to mid Romantic era, and his appearance marks the beginning of that era, due to the dramatic departure of his style from Classic period works. I didn't buy you anything from the Classic period, but just to keep things straight, it started around 1750 (remember Bach's death and the end of the Baroque period), and ended roughly around 1800. The Classic period included the short but brilliant career of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as the prosperous and consistently impressive career (all 104 symphonies worth) of Franz Joseph Haydn.
Beethoven had the fortunate opportunity to study with both men early in his career, and thus developed a symphonic style strongly entrenched in Classic period form. But from this basis Beethoven would expand his style and become an innovator not only in the length of his symphonies (his Ninth is 76 minutes long compared to the average length of 20 minutes for a Mozart symphony), but in their dramatic impact as well. No longer would the symphony be a mere delightful excursion in rounded forms with the promise to be finished soon so as not to bore the aristocracy. With the rise of the middle class in many European countries (via such events as the French revolution in 1783), Beethoven was no longer required to baby his audience, but rather could hit them full in the face with a brick.
His symphonies display an intensity of emotion unprecedented in the instrumental music of or preceding his time. Who even now would fail to recognize the powerful opening of his Fifth Symphony - Da Da Da Daaaa...Da Da Da Daaaa! Beethoven also expanded the instrumentation of the orchestra to include dominant roles for horns, thus lending a unique quality to his sound, one which makes his work instantly distinguishable from his predecessors. His music has influenced nearly two centuries of composers, and its impact will likely be felt for generations to come.
Beethoven's contemporaries include such famous composers as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, all tremendously talented in their own right and representing the impelling force behind the German Romantic movement in music. Later romantic composers include Richard Wagner, composer of many large scale operas (e.g: Tannhauser and The Valkyrie) and Gustav Mahler, who wrote symphonies even longer than Beethoven's. One of the many late romantic composers in Russia was Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). Rachmaninoff's career extends into the Twentieth Century, but much of his music, including the Piano Concerto Number Two on your disc, represents an extension of the Romantic period style. His piano music is renowned for it percussive intensity and colorist qualities, revealing a wide spectrum of mood while exploring fantastic aural realms. Rachmaninoff was also part of a neoclassicist movement (a return to classicism) in the early twentieth century, in which he revived Russian liturgical choral music. Included in this segment of his oeuvre are some of the Russian Pieces we performed in the Grinnell Singers over the past few years.
A contemporary of Rachmaninoff, but representing a completely different cultural background and musical style is George Gershwin (1898-1937). Gershwin’s work is emblematic of the roaring twenties in America. He began as a songwriter, teaming with older brother and lyricist Ira on such works as Porgy and Bess. A master tunesmith, Gershwin was at his best writing song melodies, but in the second half of his relatively short life, Gershwin would turn to the orchestra as a large scale medium through which he could more fully realize his impressions of the Jazz Age. After receiving tutelage in orchestration from French composer Maurice Ravel (of Bolero fame), Gershwin in 1924 composed Rhapsody in Blue, a work which still stands today as one of the most representative and beloved works early twentieth century America. This, as well as other successful orchestral works such as American in Paris and his piano concertos helped establish Gershwin as a premiere American composer.
So there you have it, a rough background of composers who lives span nearly 300 years, and whose music I hope you'll enjoy.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Prolonging the Agony
You know that sinking feeling you get when you realize an artist has gone the wrong direction with their music? I was reminded of this last week when my friend Steve asked me if the Strokes second album was any good, to which I replied it had been very disappointing. Somehow they got all wrapped up in the drugs and the girls and forgot what made them so interesting in the first place – their music. It happens a lot, and to a great many more talented bands than the Strokes. Often, they never recover.
It’s not just music either. There’s an axiom that states that every great talented x has a primetime during when they have their best production. It happens with basketball players and theoretical physicists, so it shoudn’t surprise us when it happens to musicians. Of course for some musicians primetime is a single song. In the case of Men Without Hats or Big Country, mercifully so.
The best move is to die before a slide can occur, ala Mozart, the only problem being that you no longer produce anything and your catalog becomes stale. On the other hand, you can lead a long productive life as a musician and eventually it will still seem stale, e.g. Haydn. Not that Haydn was a bad composer but when you start numbering your symphonies in the hundreds maybe it’s time to hang up the quill. I mean, how many versions of the “The Clock” symphony can you hear and still view it as fresh?
For mediocre musicians there’s an even greater risk of not knowing when to quit. This leads to what I call prolonging the agony. We don’t tend to view the composers of antiquity as having needed to stop sooner, otherwise they wouldn’t be great enough to be remembered in the first place, but what about Weezer? They just need to end the suffering already. Pop music is rife with examples. For instance I might say the top 10 artists on the charts should definitely all quit, and that’s without even knowing who any of them are.
Ah, but without the chaff could there be any wheat? Probably not. It’s only by the mediocrity of the many that we recognize the excellence of the few. How would we view Roy Orbison if not for Bobby Darin, The Stooges if not for Grand Funk Railroad, or Patti Smith if not for Patty Smyth? There’s much to be thankful for in this regard, not the least of which is that while most people are busy idolizing some pop phenom they can leave me and my esoteric music tastes the fuck alone.
There is another path to prolonging the agony, by which musicians who were brilliant together decide to go solo, often with disastrous results. The only band to have any success whatsoever with this were the Beatles, and I only grudgingly concede that. Though Lennon and McCartney were both brilliant songwriters, once they split we were forced to listen to their wives sing, so I’d call it a wash.
Worse examples abound. Peter Gabriel had a reasonable solo career, but Genesis’ break-up meant we had to endure Phil Collins. Music karma will never forgive that bastard for the damage he’s inflicted. Snoop Dogg was never as good without Dr. Dre, Perry Ferrell without Dave Navarro, and Peaches without Herb. Just kidding on that last one.
The only thing worse than bad solo albums is when they all tank but the band members still hate each other. This leads to that ultimate musical Frankenstein monster - the supergroup. Only the brilliant mind of a record company executive could come up with the likes of Mike & the Mechanics, Power Station, or the Traveling Wilburys. It’s not that supergroups always suck, it’s just that it’s really hard to capture the original magic.
If this doesn’t work out I suppose there’s always the reunion tour. Of course I’m long tuned out by then. I just don’t understand how anyone can get excited about paying over $100 to go see a geriatric Mick Jagger prance about on stage. Maybe it was cool the first three reunion tours, but they should have a little self respect and hang it up already. There are a lot worse things than being rich and old. You could just be old like the rest of us.
It’s not just music either. There’s an axiom that states that every great talented x has a primetime during when they have their best production. It happens with basketball players and theoretical physicists, so it shoudn’t surprise us when it happens to musicians. Of course for some musicians primetime is a single song. In the case of Men Without Hats or Big Country, mercifully so.
The best move is to die before a slide can occur, ala Mozart, the only problem being that you no longer produce anything and your catalog becomes stale. On the other hand, you can lead a long productive life as a musician and eventually it will still seem stale, e.g. Haydn. Not that Haydn was a bad composer but when you start numbering your symphonies in the hundreds maybe it’s time to hang up the quill. I mean, how many versions of the “The Clock” symphony can you hear and still view it as fresh?
For mediocre musicians there’s an even greater risk of not knowing when to quit. This leads to what I call prolonging the agony. We don’t tend to view the composers of antiquity as having needed to stop sooner, otherwise they wouldn’t be great enough to be remembered in the first place, but what about Weezer? They just need to end the suffering already. Pop music is rife with examples. For instance I might say the top 10 artists on the charts should definitely all quit, and that’s without even knowing who any of them are.
Ah, but without the chaff could there be any wheat? Probably not. It’s only by the mediocrity of the many that we recognize the excellence of the few. How would we view Roy Orbison if not for Bobby Darin, The Stooges if not for Grand Funk Railroad, or Patti Smith if not for Patty Smyth? There’s much to be thankful for in this regard, not the least of which is that while most people are busy idolizing some pop phenom they can leave me and my esoteric music tastes the fuck alone.
There is another path to prolonging the agony, by which musicians who were brilliant together decide to go solo, often with disastrous results. The only band to have any success whatsoever with this were the Beatles, and I only grudgingly concede that. Though Lennon and McCartney were both brilliant songwriters, once they split we were forced to listen to their wives sing, so I’d call it a wash.
Worse examples abound. Peter Gabriel had a reasonable solo career, but Genesis’ break-up meant we had to endure Phil Collins. Music karma will never forgive that bastard for the damage he’s inflicted. Snoop Dogg was never as good without Dr. Dre, Perry Ferrell without Dave Navarro, and Peaches without Herb. Just kidding on that last one.
The only thing worse than bad solo albums is when they all tank but the band members still hate each other. This leads to that ultimate musical Frankenstein monster - the supergroup. Only the brilliant mind of a record company executive could come up with the likes of Mike & the Mechanics, Power Station, or the Traveling Wilburys. It’s not that supergroups always suck, it’s just that it’s really hard to capture the original magic.
If this doesn’t work out I suppose there’s always the reunion tour. Of course I’m long tuned out by then. I just don’t understand how anyone can get excited about paying over $100 to go see a geriatric Mick Jagger prance about on stage. Maybe it was cool the first three reunion tours, but they should have a little self respect and hang it up already. There are a lot worse things than being rich and old. You could just be old like the rest of us.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Oh I, I’m Still Alive
As counterpoint to last week’s article about musicians gone too soon, I thought I would talk this week about living musicians that inspire me. The use of a Pearl Jam lyric as a title is a bit ironic, however, given that I now wish Eddie Vedder was dead. In fact I long ago sold my copy of Ten, and if I hear “Jeremy” on the radio it makes me want to puke. Oh well.
These are musicians whose talents I view with such reverance that I often find myself daydreaming about being close friends with them. Like, we would just hang out, you know, and talk about stuff because we view the world in the same way. This except for the inevitable restraining order that would follow an episode or two of overzealous fanboy antics. It’s probably better this way, though, because I can gush freely about them in this blog.
Maynard James Keenan – lead singer of Tool and A Perfect Circle. Maynard is the author of so many good lyrics that it’s hard to know where to start. Most of these have come from his work with Tool, who to me define the term anti-establishment rock band. That they continue to record albums is a minor miracle in light of the shameless overpromotion of talentless bands that is the American music industry today. Their fan base is completely grass roots, and so devoted that their last album Lateralus (2001) sold several hundred thousand copies it’s first week despite a near complete lack of promotion.
Maynard often uses the songs as vehicles to critique the largesse of American society. He paints us ultimately as what we are - consumed by consumption. This is particularly well voiced in the song “Hooker With a Penis” off of Aenima:
All you read and wear or see and
Hear on TV is a product
Begging for your fatass dirty dollar
So ... shut up and buy my new record
This may seem a little self-serving but you have to hear how he sings it to realize how brilliant it is. Maynard’s voice is so powerful that all things superficial are simply laid to waste in it’s path. It simultaneously expresses the burden and obligation of our materialistic culture and his efforts to best cope with it.
Ian MacKaye – lead singer of Fugazi. This is a man with so much integrity that even after all these years, he still records and distributes Fugazi’s records himself through his D.C. based independent label. If you look on the cd, it will say something like “This recording available directly from Dischord records for $6 postage paid.” This is MacKaye’s mechanism to subvert any attempts by record stores to charge more for the albums than he originally intended. You can also still see the band live for around $5 and usually at a club that’s all ages. His vision was simply to allow people to experience music without the commercial intermediary.
As for the music it’s as much activist as it is hard core punk. Fugazi songs are more than mere anthems of alienation. They often deal directly with hot-button political issues such as war or the plight of the disenfranchised. The band’s proximity to the nation’s capital gives the message even greater weight. One of my favorites is song called Reclamation, a song about reproductive rights off of the album Steady Diet of Nothing:
These are our demands:
We want control of our bodies.
Decisions will now be ours.
You can carry out your noble actions,
We will carry our noble scars.
Again, the written lyrics alone do not convey the full impact. As with Tool it is the method of delivery which is most profound. There are probably many people in the audience who don’t realize the gravity of the subject matter but enjoy the music anyway. It’s the fact that he never felt the need to abandon the message and sell out that makes MacKaye such a hero of mine.
Thom Yorke – lead singer of Radiohead. I know it seems like I only ever talk about the lead singers of bands. Maybe it’s because they are the literal as well as figurative voice of the band, and hence I tend to ascribe much of the band’s personality to them. Or maybe it’s because I was once the lead singer of a band and am an insufferable egotist. Of course I realize it is a collaborative effort, but people will always remember John Lennon over Ringo Starr, so maybe it’s justified.
At any rate, Thom Yorke is the reason that one out of every 6,000 songs on the radio is worth listening to. When Radiohead first arrived on the scene with the “Creep” in 1993, I thought it might be a short-lived Weezer-like existence for them. Instead they went on to reinvent themselves 3 or 4 times, and though they have alternately endeared and alienated their fan base with consecutive releases, they have always remained true to their artistic sensibilities. They are lucky that the popularity of songs off of early albums now makes the playing of more recent (and more challenging) material compulsory for most alternative rock stations, but this does nothing to diminish the height of their craft.
Unlike others I have mentioned in this article, Yorke’s lyrics tend to deal with abstract themes over real-life issues. It seems appropriate in the modern age that the mere proper expression of alienation is a relief, particularly when it is done so poorly by other bands (System of a Down comes to mind.) Yorke’s melodic sensibility helps a lot, as is evident from the song Let Down from OK Computer:
Transport, motorways and tramlines,
starting and then stopping,
taking off and landing,
the emptiest of feelings,
disappointed people, clinging on to bottles,
and when it comes it's so, so, disappointing.
Let down and hanging around,
crushed like a bug in the ground.
Let down and hanging around.
This would seem to be a total downer of a song, and yet the melody makes it feel light and airy, almost optimistic. It gets back to something I’ve expressed before. Good lyrics may not hide the jagged edges of reality but that doesn’t preclude the music from being beautiful. Thom Yorke makes it feel good to feel bad.
OK enough with these lists, I promise next time I’ll talk about something more esoteric like the link between on-stage transvestitism and homosexual liberation in the glam rock period of the seventies. In the meantime, to learn more about the bands I've mentioned, please follow the links below:
http://www.toolband.com/
http://www.dischord.com/bands/fugazi.shtml
http://www.radiohead.com/
These are musicians whose talents I view with such reverance that I often find myself daydreaming about being close friends with them. Like, we would just hang out, you know, and talk about stuff because we view the world in the same way. This except for the inevitable restraining order that would follow an episode or two of overzealous fanboy antics. It’s probably better this way, though, because I can gush freely about them in this blog.
Maynard James Keenan – lead singer of Tool and A Perfect Circle. Maynard is the author of so many good lyrics that it’s hard to know where to start. Most of these have come from his work with Tool, who to me define the term anti-establishment rock band. That they continue to record albums is a minor miracle in light of the shameless overpromotion of talentless bands that is the American music industry today. Their fan base is completely grass roots, and so devoted that their last album Lateralus (2001) sold several hundred thousand copies it’s first week despite a near complete lack of promotion.
Maynard often uses the songs as vehicles to critique the largesse of American society. He paints us ultimately as what we are - consumed by consumption. This is particularly well voiced in the song “Hooker With a Penis” off of Aenima:
All you read and wear or see and
Hear on TV is a product
Begging for your fatass dirty dollar
So ... shut up and buy my new record
This may seem a little self-serving but you have to hear how he sings it to realize how brilliant it is. Maynard’s voice is so powerful that all things superficial are simply laid to waste in it’s path. It simultaneously expresses the burden and obligation of our materialistic culture and his efforts to best cope with it.
Ian MacKaye – lead singer of Fugazi. This is a man with so much integrity that even after all these years, he still records and distributes Fugazi’s records himself through his D.C. based independent label. If you look on the cd, it will say something like “This recording available directly from Dischord records for $6 postage paid.” This is MacKaye’s mechanism to subvert any attempts by record stores to charge more for the albums than he originally intended. You can also still see the band live for around $5 and usually at a club that’s all ages. His vision was simply to allow people to experience music without the commercial intermediary.
As for the music it’s as much activist as it is hard core punk. Fugazi songs are more than mere anthems of alienation. They often deal directly with hot-button political issues such as war or the plight of the disenfranchised. The band’s proximity to the nation’s capital gives the message even greater weight. One of my favorites is song called Reclamation, a song about reproductive rights off of the album Steady Diet of Nothing:
These are our demands:
We want control of our bodies.
Decisions will now be ours.
You can carry out your noble actions,
We will carry our noble scars.
Again, the written lyrics alone do not convey the full impact. As with Tool it is the method of delivery which is most profound. There are probably many people in the audience who don’t realize the gravity of the subject matter but enjoy the music anyway. It’s the fact that he never felt the need to abandon the message and sell out that makes MacKaye such a hero of mine.
Thom Yorke – lead singer of Radiohead. I know it seems like I only ever talk about the lead singers of bands. Maybe it’s because they are the literal as well as figurative voice of the band, and hence I tend to ascribe much of the band’s personality to them. Or maybe it’s because I was once the lead singer of a band and am an insufferable egotist. Of course I realize it is a collaborative effort, but people will always remember John Lennon over Ringo Starr, so maybe it’s justified.
At any rate, Thom Yorke is the reason that one out of every 6,000 songs on the radio is worth listening to. When Radiohead first arrived on the scene with the “Creep” in 1993, I thought it might be a short-lived Weezer-like existence for them. Instead they went on to reinvent themselves 3 or 4 times, and though they have alternately endeared and alienated their fan base with consecutive releases, they have always remained true to their artistic sensibilities. They are lucky that the popularity of songs off of early albums now makes the playing of more recent (and more challenging) material compulsory for most alternative rock stations, but this does nothing to diminish the height of their craft.
Unlike others I have mentioned in this article, Yorke’s lyrics tend to deal with abstract themes over real-life issues. It seems appropriate in the modern age that the mere proper expression of alienation is a relief, particularly when it is done so poorly by other bands (System of a Down comes to mind.) Yorke’s melodic sensibility helps a lot, as is evident from the song Let Down from OK Computer:
Transport, motorways and tramlines,
starting and then stopping,
taking off and landing,
the emptiest of feelings,
disappointed people, clinging on to bottles,
and when it comes it's so, so, disappointing.
Let down and hanging around,
crushed like a bug in the ground.
Let down and hanging around.
This would seem to be a total downer of a song, and yet the melody makes it feel light and airy, almost optimistic. It gets back to something I’ve expressed before. Good lyrics may not hide the jagged edges of reality but that doesn’t preclude the music from being beautiful. Thom Yorke makes it feel good to feel bad.
OK enough with these lists, I promise next time I’ll talk about something more esoteric like the link between on-stage transvestitism and homosexual liberation in the glam rock period of the seventies. In the meantime, to learn more about the bands I've mentioned, please follow the links below:
http://www.toolband.com/
http://www.dischord.com/bands/fugazi.shtml
http://www.radiohead.com/
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