Better than Ever!

We just got back from seeing Tony Bennett in Sonoma. While his voice isn't quite as strong as it was in the mid-1990's, which is what I identify as his peak, he still sings like no one else, has great stage manners, and puts on an incredible show. He is in full command of his voice, and his phrasing has become better with age. It also helps that he can hire top notch musicians for his band. Anyway, it is late and I have a story due first thing in the morning, so my review boils down to this: if Tony Bennett comes to a venue near you, go see him.

Bob Wills at 100

Can you believe that I beat them to this one?

Of course we have a claim to Western Swing legend Bob Wills almost as much as Texas.

From 1943 to 1949 the Texas Playboys were in California, first in Santa Monica and Fresno, then the Wills Point Ballroom near Sacramento. After that he moved on to Oklahoma City.

But Bob Wills' California connection does not end there. In 1971 Oildale's own Merle Haggard reunited the Texas Playboys and was responsible for "For the Last Time" recording session.

Of course, the truth be told, Bob Wills was one of those people who brought a little bit of Texas with him wherever he was.

So, in honor of today, his 100th Birthday, let's hear a loud "EeeeehYAWWWW!"

A Quick Music Post

I am still swamped, not only by the BIG project, but several smaller projects with lightning fast turnarounds that were dropped in my lap on Monday and Yesterday. They are good projects, but they are time drainers. Boom. There goes an hour. Boom. There goes another hour. Boom. Client is on the phone with a list of last minute changes. Boom. Here comes the rush fee! Boom! There goes another hour.

I have the right espresso-to-blood ratio in my veins, and Amalia is busy "cleaning" her room. Harharhar. Let's see....boom! There goes another hour, lost in the vortex of cleaning the cleaning. But I can't discourage this endevour. It is a step in the right direction, and she sings when she gets distracted from the task, and I can listen to three and a half year olds singing all day long.

Anyway, what I am going to give you today is a fantastic resource. I will post specific parts from it later, with my own two cents, but if you want to start building a classical music library, this is a good place to start. I have not read all of it, but from what I have read it seems pretty good.

So, here is The Classical Music Basic Repertoire List. Poke through it, and if you have any questions on anything or want recommendations between this or that, holler.

Right off the top, I do have one quibble: they could have done much better with Lou Harrison. First, he passed away at least two years ago, so they need to update that. Second, while La Koro Sutro and the Varied Trio and one of the percussion suites are outstanding, I would have added Complete Harpsichord Works, Music for Tack Piano and Pianoforte performed by Linda Burman-Hall (disclosure: Linda was my harpsichord teacher) on New Albion Records, as well as Solstice/Canticle #3, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies on the Musicmasters label.

I also consider Hymnen a far more important work of Stockhausen than Mantra.

Anyway, they are really strong on baroque, even listing the outstanding Jose Antonio Carlos de Seixas, who is about as neglected as Padre Antonio Soler.

So, have fun, listen to good music, etc. etc. etc.

Boom! Another hour gone!

Padre Antonio Soler

I try to give you lots and lots of original content, but the fact is, I am way too busy to provide anything too grand for awhile. Now, don't fret, as the upside of this is that when I am done, I will be posting the results of what I am working on. I will give you a hint: St. Thomas Aquinas, Gregorian Chant, Eucharist.

Basically the situation is simple: I am giving a talk on the Eucharistic hymns of St. Thomas Aquinas at The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi on March 15, 7pm. I am doing a lot of detailed analysis work for it, only a fraction of which will be distilled into the talk. The rest of it will find its way here. Perhaps in bits and pieces, perhaps excessively technical, but it will be here.

In the meanwhile, I will try to give you suggestions of other places to visit to learn about early music, bullfighting, etc. I will also continue to post recipes as I invent them.

So, why not take some time to familiarize yourself with one of my favorite pre-classical harpsichord composers, Padre Antonio Soler? A student of Scarlatti, an inventor as well as composer, I am amazed that this remarkable figure is not better known. So, for all of your introduction to Padre Soler needs, might I point you in the direction of this site? I have not explored it thoroughly yet (will have to wait until after Easter), but what I have read looks good.

Enjoy, and happy harpsichording!

Music for Gray Days

The next question you might ask, after reading the last entry, is "well, what is the proper music for a gray, non-rainy day?"

I like music that is slightly moody, but not given to intense emotionalism. Or I like music that I can sink my teeth into, particularly if it is fairly austere. I often get nostalgic for the pieces that cemented my love for modernist music, particularly the early electronic pieces.

In many ways, this is the time when I want my comfort music. I am in no mood to be charitable to grinning neo-tonalists. I want my brain to be taxed, not my patience.

In no particular order, I present to you my list of music for a gray day:

1. Any string quartet by Anton Webern
2. String Quartet and Piano by Morton Feldman
3. Rothko Chapel by Morton Feldman
4. Te Deum by Arvo Part
5. Any of the early electronic music pieces by Pierre Henry, Pierre Schaeffer, Edgard Varese (particularly Poem Electronique, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, Ilhan Mimoroglu (I need to check the spelling on that - don't speak Turkish), John Cage, Iannis Xennakis.
6. Later electronic music pieces by Morton Subotnik, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Laurie Anderson, etc.
7. Various baroque recorder consort music
8. Claudio Monteverdi
9. Choral work by Ligeti
10. Frescobaldi
11. French early baroque chamber music
12. Portuguese and Spanish pre-classical harpsichord music
13. Portuguese guitarradas
14. John Coltrane's Crescent
15. Lou Harrison's harpsichord music
16. Lou Harrison's percussion ensemble music
17. Balinese gamelan
18. Iranian classical music
19. Dino Saluzzi (any of his stuff)
20. Alvin Lucier's Music on a Long Thin Wire
21. John Cage prepared piano pieces.
22. Hyperrationalist chamber music by Stockhausen and Boulez
23. Late Franz Liszt, particularly The Lugubrious Gondola and At the Grave of Richard Wagner
24. L'apres midi d'un faun
25. Gordon Mumma's Megaton for William S. Burroughs
26. Harry Partch, particularly And on the seventh day, petals fell on Petaluma
27. Come Out by Steve Reich
28. Smetana's Ma Vlast
29. Dvorak chamber works
30. Berg's Piano Sonata Op. 1, Lyric Suite and
31. Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire
32. Stravinsky's , Les Noces, and Petrouchka
33. Erik Satie
34. Johnny Cash's American Recordings
35. George Jones (anything, any period, even his decadent stuff)
36. Roger Miller
37. 1920's blues, rags and other string music, for instance, Suzy Thompson's soon to be released CD on Arhoolie, or the Crumb soundtrack, or John Jackson's Country Blues and Ditties.
38. Mance Lipscomb and other rural acoustic blues (again, for the best in this stuff, go to Arhoolie Records)

If you want more information or specific recording recommendations, holler.

The Violin Concerto

I must admit that my least favorite genre of music is the post-baroque concerto. There are some that I like, and plenty that I admire, but if I were never to hear another one again, well, there is enough other music out there that I would not grieve. OK, I would miss Berg's, but beyond that, not much.

Today we were listening to some 19th century violin concerto and it hit me: it is a preposterous image. You have the soloist as hero, and I have known too many violinists. A piano concerto is more plausible, at least most pianists think of themselves as heroes of some sorts (after all, their instrument is a gigantic beast of cast iron), but violinists? They are the skinny ones who have "Peace Through Music" stickers on their cars. And if they aren't, their instrument sounds like it should be played by those who do.

The violin is at its most heroic when it is totally alone: slightly mournful, really exposed, setting up a tremendous power against a certain austerity. The violin is the anti-accordion. An accordion is a self-contained orchestra. One player can play all sorts of chords and harmonies, but a violinist is forced to resort to tricks to hold any sort of counterpoint. A triple stop here, a double stop there, but for the most part, it is about forcing the ear to hear one tone longer than it actually does.

But when you have a lush orchestra providing the harmonies, the violinist as hero becomes preposterous. He is a shrill and effete officer, standing on the hillside while the troops muck it out, only to take credit for their courage.

A singer at least has to deal with the fact that, deep down, the musicians hate her. When a singer goes against the orchestra, especially in Wagner, she is the lone soprano standing against the enemy cavalry. Like a Therimin player, she has no frets or keys or even a fingerboard. Unlike every musician, with the possible exeption of guitarists, she goes to bed with her instrument. When a fiddle player has a cold, he can take drugs and slog through it. When a singer has so much as a tickle in the throat, it can mean a career ending move to appear.

But a violinist plays with the orchestra that is usually dominated by his fellow violinists. So, when the premise of a competition between soloist and orchestra comes out, he is not only the enemy, but a traitor. The meanest trick a composer can play on a violin soloist is to give small solos to the concertmaster, those little reminders that, yes, any one of the fiddle players here could probably make it through the soloist's part.

Of course the rhetoric of the concerto is that the soloist triumphs, but then goes on to make beautiful music with the orchestra anyhow. So, then you have the vanquished troops having to grin and cooperate with the traitor, then to suffer the humiliation of having the soloist take the big bow.

At least with singers the poor musicians have the satisfaction of knowing all along that it is an enemy in their midst, not some turncoat. They fought the battle, and let the Battle win, because everyone knows what musicians can do to an overbearing singer. The singer, if she is to be cast as the winner in this antagonistic role, is best seen as a tamer of savage beasts, or a charmer of vipers, or, yes, even a bullfighter who has encountered a bull that, having had several chances to gore her, decided to cooperate for the good of the faena.

And now you know why singers can be so neurotic.