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If you were to ask a modern musician what the quarter note means in Common Time the answer would be simple: “It lasts for one full beat, to be released at the beginning of the succeeding beat.” Ah, but eighteenth-century rhythm reading is not a simple “one-size-fits-all” affair. Just as spoken language has evolved over time, so has music notational language. The notation has remained much the same; it is how the notation is read that has changed. So, how is the quarter note quandary solved? Gazing at the issue through an eighteenth-century lens will answer the riddle.
Eighteenth-century style is one of clarity – expressive rhythmic clarity – that projects character or affekt through the notation at hand. And the crisp, articulate fortepiano is the perfectly suited instrument for executing the style. All rhythmic elements are chosen to reflect affekt; so much so that when certain elements are present a particular affekt is understood. The Rhythm Schemata diagram provides insight to the interacting elements:
Rhythm Schemata
Notice that affekt is at the center of the wheel. All notational decisions – appropriate tempo and meter, carefully crafted formal and phrase structure to allow for execution of rhetoric, and specific rhythm choices – are made to express the desired affekt.
Execution of the quarter note varies greatly depending on tempo and meter choices, which are directly related to period dances. For example, a march in duple meter commands a different affekt than a minuet in triple meter. Just like there are heavy and light meters, note values act in much the same way. A time signature with a 2 in the bottom denotes heavy affekt, one with a 4 lighter, and one with an 8 in the bottom lighter yet. Note value choices within the meter provide execution clues. For instance, a piece made up primarily of half and quarter notes would be heavier than one of eighth and sixteenth notes. A comparison of Beethoven’s Sonata, op. 10, no. 3 to his Sonata op. 14, no. 2 demonstrates how note values take on differing character based on these period practices. So, the quarter note may take on a variety of characters, and consequently lengths, based on affekt.
Today, legato is the ordinary way of playing. If a line is presented with no markings (staccato or legato), the performer assumes to play legato, holding every rhythm for the full value. Not so in eighteenth-century style. This is where the answer to the riddle lies: The quarter note is held for its full value only when it occurs under a slur or a tenuto marking. How long should it be held? Just when is it appropriate to release the quarter note? This is where affekt is essential (and why it is at the center of the wheel). Depending on affekt, a quarter note may be cut quite short (like a crisp timpani attack) or held for most of the beat (as in a forlorn oboe solo). One must turn to the nuances of notation – formal structure, meter, expression marks, dynamics, and beaming – for clues.
Taking specific steps will facilitate creating a rhythmically authentic and personal eighteenth-century style on the modern piano.
Begin with Urtext. It is essential to work from an authentic score to determine how best to follow the clues left by the composer rather than an interpretation offered by an editor.
During initial experiences work with a piece that contains simple textures and is quite bare (few slurs or dynamic markings). Simple dances from Mozart’s Klavierstücke, Beethoven’s German Dances, or Piano Sonata in C Major, K. 545 by Mozart are good starting places.
Do some digging: What dance is being described? Is the meter heavy or light? In context, are the note values heavy or light? Unearthing answers will impact the length of the quarter notes.
Hold the quarter notes for full value only when under a slur or tenuto.
Strive for a strong metrical pulse. The down-beat is extremely important in this style.
Allow the energy and expression (determined by the affekt) to influence carefully placed timing and rubato within metrical boundaries.
Sing each line; this will go a long way in deciding tasteful rhythmic length and timing.
The fortepiano’s strength is crispness and clarity of tone, the modern piano’s is to produce a long, legato line. Listen carefully and continually. Adjust to the feedback from the instrument to prevent a choppy tone and choked endings of phrases.
Hear the improvement in the sound aesthetic as you move through the following audio examples: 1) a frequently-heard modern rendition, 2) an interpretation on a Belt-Walter replica ca. 1780’s five-octave fortepiano, and 3) a reconciled and historically informed rendition on a modern piano. The energy and vibrancy provided by using period rhythm-reading strategies is markedly noticeable.
Clementi, Piano Sonatina in C Major, op. 36, no. 1/I, mm. 1-6.
Taking the time to view the score through an eighteenth-century lens and apply the period performance practices judiciously to modern playing provides the opportunity to discover an old language that may be recreated in a new way.
Featured image: “Fortepiano label” by Ching. CC by 2.0 via Flickr.
Shakespeare's characters can often appear far-removed from our modern day world of YouTube, Beyoncé and grime. Yet they were certainly no less interested in music than we are now, with music considered to be at the heart of Shakespeare’s artistic vision. Of course our offerings have come a long way since Shakespeare's day, but we think it is a shame that they never had a chance to hear the musical delights of Katy Perry or Slipknot.
How does one capture the Classical style sound aesthetic when approaching performance of eighteenth-century repertoire on the modern piano? Although it is important to know of the period instruments and their associated physical sound qualities, knowing how period musicians approached their art emotionally and intellectually will provide even deeper insight into discovering how to recreate the sound aesthetic.
Grappling with performing the music of early Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn on the modern piano can be a daunting experience. The modern piano is not the instrument for which their music was composed. Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn all preferred Viennese pianos (today called the fortepiano) and the traits from the inside out are distinctly different than those of the modern piano.
This month we're spotlighting the unique and beautiful oboe. We asked Heather Calow, lifelong oboe player and now an oboe teacher based in Leicester, UK, what first drew her to the instrument.
In 1598, Jacopo Peri's lost Dafne premiered in Florence. it is widely considered to be the first opera, that genre of classical music in which a dramatic work is set to music. Over the last 400 years, it has evolved into numerous different art forms, from the ballad opera of the eighteenth century, to the ragtime music of the early 20th century, to the musical theatre of today.
After a recent performance, a member of the audience came up to tell me that he'd enjoyed my playing. "I always think," he said, as if he were being original, "that the violin is the instrument that most closely resembles the human voice." Outwardly I nodded assent and smiled; inwardly I groaned. If you happen to be a violinist, then you'll be only too familiar with this particular cliché.
It’s a cartoon image from my childhood: a man with wild hair, wearing a topcoat, and frantically waving a baton with a deranged look on his face. In fact, this caricature of what a composer should look like was probably inspired by the popular image of Beethoven: moody, distant, a loner… a genius lost in his own world.
Celebrating their 120th birthday this year, the BBC Promenade Concerts – universally known as “The Proms” – rank as the world’s biggest classical music festival. With 76 concerts, running from July to September, of which the vast majority focus on classical music, not only do the events reach a sizeable audience live in London’s Royal Albert Hall, or for the earlier daytime concerts, the Cadogan Hall, but there’s a much bigger audience for the nightly live broadcasts on BBC radio and for the highlights on television.
In celebration of The BBC Proms 120th anniversary we have created a comprehensive reading list of books, journals, and online resources that celebrate the eight- week British summer season of orchestral music, live performances, and late-night music and poetry.
Established in 2001, Jazz Appreciation Month celebrates the rich history, present accolades, and future growth of jazz music. Spanning the blues, ragtime, dixieland, bebop, swing, soul, and instrumentals, there's no surprise that jazz music has endured the test of time from its early origins amongst African-American slaves in the late 19th century to its growth today.
Children’s Music Education is too important to be minimized or overlooked.
Articles and lists of why children need to be learning music are easily found on the net.
Everything from improved brains to social and educational benefits. So we can conclusively establish that learning to play a musical instrument is vital for everyone.
Yet, educational authorities have allowed music to be marginalized in many schools.
It seems kids have stopped listening to classical music or learning to play an orchestral instrument? And apparently, 75% of high school students in the US never or rarely take lessons in arts or music. This is not looking good.
I would like to see every school with orchestras, bands, choirs and a good supply of musically competent teachers. Because there’s nothing like enjoying an orchestra playing your favorite music to help you feel great as it rebuilds you from the inside out.
Anyway, what does Richard Gill the highly respected advocate for Children’s Music Education say?
“Don’t be fooled into thinking that because children are listening to pop music at school they are receiving a music education. Indeed, just listening to music of any kind is not music education. What’s more if you peel away the pop jargon, the music the kids are listening to is essentially a simple melody – lots of rhythm and just a waste of time.”
Call me grumpy perhaps, but I have to say, nothing annoys me more than seeing children choosing entertainment through technology.
For instance, kids on a device. IPhone, iPad, spending time scrolling through Facebook and Pinterest images while sorting out twitter feeds.
And there is more. In general education, formal learning is under fire. Have you read about the growing attitudes of some groups of children towards learning in general. A ten year old said this in our local newspaper.
“You Don’t Do School and you just live and learn things…I do whatever I feel like I want to do.”
Mmmm – he will struggle learning music with this attitude. Music is a privilege and a joy but does include attitudes of commitment and hard work.
So! How can we motivate kids to Learn To Play Music? And, how do we motivate the reluctant ones to do so?
Perhaps we might learn something from Youth Sports?
Many children participate in youth sports each year? Viewed as a rite of passage in a child’s development, parents believe that youth sports are good for their kids.
If the clichés that permeate sports broadcasts and locker room speeches are to be believed, sports participation teaches children the value of hard work, builds character, and develops future leaders.
Young children follow and like their sporting heroes and want to be as good as them.
I’m not going to beat about the bush. I think it’s time we considered this a model for Children’s Music Education? Finding music heroes for children to choose to like and follow? Asking this question: ‘Who is your absolute favourite classical musician?’
The real problem is so often children don’t know what music they don’t know about! The music they haven’t heard.
They don’t know what they’re missing until they hear it. And, by tapping into their inner core that loves music, and selecting music outside their experience which will inspire, encourage and motivate, kids can be encouraged to turn around for another look or listen or both. And then it’s: “Oh! I lOVE this music!”
As a former teacher and musician I realise that Kids think classical music is all too complicated and long. My conversation with Kids can go a little bit like this.
“Oh! Chrissy! You actually like Classical Music? Oh I’ll never listen to Classical Music! I don’t like it at all”
“Classical Music”I reply, “should be a grand excuse for stepping out of the world to share exquisite moments of sheer bliss. There’s the have to have music you love to listen to, over and over again. And the magnificent music that keeps us spellbound – the music that you don’t want to ever end.”
As my friend Ginny says: “With classical music you never know what you’re going to get. Some concerts are so exquisite I have to stop myself sobbing out loud.”
Teach Kids Music!
Anyway, moving on. Whether kids play an instrument, sing along, or enjoy the music played by others, every child deserves an adult who will understand how a child can become the very best they can possibly be.
To be sure, teachers who patiently sit through countless music recitals and question their sanity at encouraging those trumpet or violin lessons need do so no longer. A musical moment shared with even one other person, is a treasure that exists at no other time, in no other way.
To be honest I believe the way forward is in ‘Live Music’ being a part of everyone’s day to day. Yet it is not for the majority of people. So why be part of it? Why not we need to ask?”
Stephen P Brown says: “Think about what your plans are tonight or this weekend. Are there simply not enough concerts? Yes – I did just say that.”
When most people think of classical music they think of an orchestra at a large concert hall, but music is far greater than being confined to an exotic square box for a night out once a month or twice a year When someone comes home from work without anything in the calendar (i.e. kids’ sports or band practice, etc.), what do they do? They think of going to a movie, or a restaurant. Perhaps visit a museum at the weekend, or a walk in the park. Some like to annoy a neighbour or family, whilst others potter in the garden.
The more concerts we host, the more they will enter people’s minds; the more the press will include them in the “what to do” listings online and in their papers; the more they will be accessible at times and places more convenient than now. The more concerts you arrange, even for a handful of people, the more music grows to become an essential part of their lives, and at the moment that is truly a God-given gift that most people are missing out on.
Now, hold that thought! On this theme of ‘Go to a concert’ Everyone likes Street Concerts!
And, what can be more exciting for most people than the involvement in sharing live music, whether it be classical, jazz or pop!
Which brings me to the very recent street concert in Sydney. “Visions of Vienna”
The sails of the Sydney Opera House were alive with moving images of paintings by famous Austrian artists. And the music presented in the Opera House Concert Hall by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Austrian Conductor Ola Rudner was a colourful selection of polkas, waltzes and marches. As the music played the people in the street began to dance. It was wonderful, colourful and glamorous!
I think it’s time we found new and innovative ways to make music training more widely available to young people, and to start this during childhood.
When his Auntie left him a piano in her will, Welsh singer, Aled Jones decided he wanted to learn to play Beatles Songs on his very own piano. Needless to say this intriguing beginning began his career with the end result – Aled’s first self-titled album by the time he was 11.
We’ve reached the beginning of the end.
Which brings me to Kids’ Educational Stories about Music. You see, I can’t resist the opportunity to once again mention my children’s books. Just thought I’d throw in a plug for it while we’re all here.
Marilyn Horne, world-renowned opera singer and recitalist, celebrated her 84th birthday on Wednesday. To acknowledge her work, not only as one of the finest singers in the world but as a mentor for young artists, I give you one of my favorite performances of hers:
Sesame Street has always been a powerful advocate for utilizing music in teaching. “C is for Cookie,” a number that really drives its message home, maintains its cultural relevance today despite being first performed by Cookie Monster more than 40 years ago. Ms. Horne’s version appeared about 20 years after the original, and is an excellent re-imagining of a classic (with great attention to detail—note the cookies sewn into her Aida regalia and covering the pyramids).
Horne’s performance shows kids that even a musician of the highest caliber can 1) be silly and 2) also like cookies—that is, it portrays her as a person with something in common with a young, broad audience. This is something that members of the classical music community often have a difficult time accomplishing; Horne achieves it here in less than three minutes.
Sesame Street produced these segments not only to expose children to distinguished music-making, but to teach them about matters like counting, spelling, working together, and respecting one another. This final clip features Itzhak Perlman, one of the world’s great violin soloists, who was left permanently disabled after having polio as a child. To demonstrate ability and disability more gracefully than this would be, I think, impossible:
American children’s music, as described in the new article on Grove Music Online[subscription required], has typically been produced through a tug of war between entertainment and educational objectives. The songs on Sesame Street succeed in both, while also showing kids something about classical music itself: it’s not just for grownups. It’s a part of life that belongs to everyone. After all, who doesn’t appreciate that the moon sometimes looks like a “C”? (Though, of course, you can’t eat that, so…)
Oxford Music Online is the gateway offering users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location. With Grove Music Online as its cornerstone, Oxford Music Online also contains The Oxford Companion to Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
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Christmas is, almost inescapably, a time of music. A lot of it is familiar and much-loved, but for those who might be looking for some more adventurous listening this year – beyond Slade, the Messiah, and Victorian carols – here are some pointers to alternative Christmas music from down the ages.
“The Sign of Judgment: the earth will be bathed in sweat”. This unlikely Christmas sentiment comes from the Song of the Sibyl, a 3rd-century Greek prophecy of the Apocalypse translated into Latin by St. Augustine and whose first lines he popularized as a form of Christmas greeting to non-Christians. The poem acquired a chant melody in 10th-century Catalonia, since when it has been a feature of the Christmas Eve liturgy in churches in Spain, Italy and Provence. This is the 10th-century Latin version, performed by Jordi Savall, the late Montserrat Figueras and La Capella Reial de Catalunya:
The Song of the Sibyl could also be performed as liturgical drama, of the kind often found in the Middle Ages. The Officium pastorumof the 13th century is another example, and in its focus on the shepherds’ story one that begins to resemble our modern Nativity. This complete performance was given by Princeton University’s Guild for Early Music in 2011.
A century or two later, the Christmas carol as we have come to know it began to emerge. Its origins lay in a mix of secular and sacred influences, including the French carole, an important social dance that required the dancers to accompany themselves with their own singing. By the 15th century, the carol as a form of song usually on the theme of Christmas had begun to establish itself, and there are many wonderful examples to discover; this setting of the Christmas lullabyLullay, lullow from the Ritson Mansucript of c1460–75 – different from the more familiar “Coventry Carol” of the same name – retains something of those dancing origins.
The Magnificat, Mary’s hymn of praise following the Anunciation (Luke 1: 46–55) is one of the very oldest songs associated with the Christmas story, and one of the most frequently set. Great Baroque Magnificats were composed by Claudio Monteverdi (his famous Vespers of 1610 conclude with two of them) and Bach, among others. But that by Heinrich Schütz combines the Venetian exuberance with the Lutheran poise of the other to exhilarating effect.
Sidestepping the familiar Christmas favourites of the 18th and 19th centuries we encounter in the mid-20th century a major instrumental work, Olivier Messiaen’s La nativité du Seigneur (1935), a suite of nine scenes from the Christmas story, for organ. Messiaen, a devout Catholic, was possibly the 20th century’s greatest composer of religious music, as well as one of its finest organists. His musical language employed a variety of systematic procedures and a sometimes obscure symbolism, but there is no getting away from the extraordinary power and often tender characterisation of his music. (The capricious baby Jesus in the opening movement, La vierge et l’enfant, is a particular delight.) Both sides be heard in the virtuoso final movement, Dieu parmi nous, performed here by one of Messiaen’s leading interpreters, Dame Gillian Weir:
Another leading composer of contemporary religious music has been Sir John Tavener. Unlike Messiaen, Tavener has drawn widely from a variety of faiths in the creation of his personal theology, in particular the Greek Orthodox Church, of which he was a member for many years. Works like Ikon of the Nativity(1991), which draw on Orthodox chants and liturgical practice, retain a strange and ancient mysticism beneath their apparently simple surfaces.
Is John Adams’s El Niño(1999–2000) the 21st century’s answer to the Messiah? Perhaps. In this “Nativity oratorio” the composer of the so-called “news operas” Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and Doctor Atomic turns his dramatic hand to the Christmas story, setting texts from the Bible and the Wakefield Mystery Plays (more medieval liturgical drama), as well as several South American poets. This extract comes from the final two sections of Part I, Se habla de Gabriel and The Christmas Star:
Finally, and to bring us right up to date, I’ve opted for Schnee (2008) by the Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen. A secular choice, for certain, but if I had to choose a work that perfectly captures the frozen sunshine of a cold Christmas morning it would be this.
Looking for an easy way to play these in one jingle-free session? Try this Spotify playlist:
Tim Rutherford-Johnson is co-editor of The Oxford Dictionary of Music Sixth Edition, with Michael Kennedy and Joyce Kennedy. He has worked for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (now Grove Music Online) since 1999 and until 2010 was the editor responsible for the dictionary’s coverage of 20th- and 21st century music. He has published and lectured on several contemporary composers, and regularly reviews new music for both print and online publications. Visit Tim’s blog here, or find him on Twitter @moderncomp.
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As a veteran of the "I can't hear you practicing" skirmishes, I am heartened by stories of young people, devoting themselves to music (and practice) which this lovely book cover promises. Band, orchestra and choir programs play a huge role in many teens' lives. One of my students used to credit Virginia Euwer Wolff's The Mozart Season for inspiring her to All State success.
Parry begins her book with this cracking opening line:
"If we had know it would eventually involve the KGB, the French National Police, and the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, we would have left that body in the river and called the Polizei like any normal German citizen; but we were Americans and addicted to solving other people's problems, so naturally, we got involved."
This is a very cleverly imagined mystery, set in the distant past of 1990, in Berlin, not long after the Berlin Wall came down. Also, as promised, there is music.
Three girls have become friends by playing together in a string trio. Their music has linked them in friendship even though they come from different social worlds. Giselle's father is the commanding general of the American Forces in Berlin and Vivian's mother is the U. S. consul general to West Berlin. Jody's family lives in enlisted soldiers' quarters. Musically, Jody also plays second violin in the trio. As political change takes hold in Germany, many American diplomatic and military families are preparing to leave Berlin. These girls will probably not see each other again.
Their apprehension worsens when they learn their music teacher will not be able to take them to a music competition in Paris, This is a blow after all their practice and preparation so on their way home, they decide to cross into the East Berlin to console themselves with some gelato. The ease of their crossing is still somewhat unnerving as this used to be enemy territory. While there, they witness a terrible crime against a Soviet soldier and despite years of Cold War distrust, the three resolve to help him. As they plan, Jody sees a way to help the soldier and also get to Paris so they can perform together, one last time.
Parry conveys a sense of what it is like to be part of a military family living overseas. Despite frequent moves and her father's long work hours, Jody's family enjoys a sweet closeness. The author also captures the time and place perfectly. One side of the Brandenburg Gate is prosperous and booming, the other side is poor and grim. Parry inserts lovely detail such as the mouth-watering aroma from a Parisian crepe cart and the quiet interior of a church which puts the reader there, on the streets of Berlin and Paris. Her descriptions are so spot on, we can follow the action with a city map.
A useful and
1 Comments on Second Fiddle, last added: 7/16/2011
Heart of a Shepherd was so well received and talked up that I know this book, too, will have Parry's uniquely sensitive and wise touch. Sounds like a really great read.
The CIP in this books shows the LC subject heading as "Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, Maria Anna Mozart, Reichsfrelin von, 1751-1829" aka Maria Anna Mozart, Wolfgang's sister. Rusch uses the piano sonata form, which she describes before the story begins, to frame her story as Maria played them frequently. Billed as Wonders of Nature! and Child Geniuses!, Maria and her younger brother, Wolfgang performed together across Europe. The two spoke French and Italian and had rich imaginations. A composer and prodigy in her own right, Maria noted down Wolfgang's compositions for him, before he could write. When their father chose to focus on Wolfgang as a solo performer, Maria was left behind at home, a move that devastated her. The siblings remained close though even after Maria's marriage and many of Wolfgang's compositions were dedicated to his sister.
Artists, Johnson and Francher use a collage of woven fabrics, rich brocades and embroidered satins, to bring the story to life. The textiles act as a canvas for the paintings and give them richness and depth. The paint is laid on thickly in places rendering a three dimensional feel to the figures. The pianos are layered with images of original hand written sheet music from the Mozart family collection. I would love to see the original artwork for this book.
A brief but complete bibliography includes books, letters and documents and personal interviews. An "encore" summary of Maria Anna Mozart's life fills out details of her story. This book is beautifully executed in every way. Bravi!
1 Comments on Nonfiction Monday: For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart, last added: 6/20/2011
Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome, Schwartz & Wade, 2011.
Joseph Boulogne was born in the West Indies in 1745. His mother was a slave on his white father's plantation. Cherished by his parents, he was educated and taught music from an early age. Joseph was extremely gifted, excelling at everything he tried.
When his father returned to France, Joseph and his mother accompanied him. Joseph was thrust into a world that did not accept him as a person of color. His talent was unmistakable though and he earned a place in the king's court as soloist, conductor and composer, even inspiring a young Mozart with his genius. He was also a master swordsman, a fact that intrigued the elementary music classes where we shared this book..
James Ransome drenches the paintings with sunlight and tropical color in Joseph's early island years. Later in France, the richness of the French court glows on the pages.
The Ransomes provide a wonderful opportunity here to learn of a less well known musician and his contributions to the world of classical music.
0 Comments on Nonfiction Monday: Before There Was Mozart as of 6/12/2011 9:16:00 AM
Today, a customer called looking for a classical CD called Mi Alma Mexicana / My Mexican Soul by Alondra de la Parra. I was intrigued when I discovered the conductor was female, since there aren' t that many female conductors. De la Parra founded her own Orchestra Conductor Alondra de la Parra has gained widespread attention for her spellbinding and vibrant performances making her one of the most compelling conductors of her generation. She has been heralded by Placido Domingo as "an extraordinary conductor" and by press as "uncommonly gifted … her blood and bone and breath are music. She is all music, from top to bottom and from inside out." Ms. de la Parra holds the distinction of being the first woman from Mexico to conduct in New York City, and holds the title of Cultural Ambassador for Mexican Tourism.
hey Eric kr u nr Austin ... here's a gret thing happening that I'm working on...Marking the 65th year since his death, the first ever tribute to Blind Willie Johnson will be held at Momo’s, 618 W. 6th St. Austin, Texas, June 3, 2010. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the show will start at 6:15 p.m. Having recently located his burial site, the Blind Willie Johnson Memorial Fund organizers are raising awareness of his music and the funds to erect a cenotaph in Blanchette Cemetery, Beaumont, Tex. where Blind Willie was buried in 1945.
The show features Jon Dee Graham, Kirby Kelley, Jimmy "Preacher" Ellis Band, Biscuit Rollers w/ Orange Jefferson & Thierry Cognee, Scott H. Biram, Ruthie Foster, Mark Searcy, and Harry Bodine.
Tickets are available at Front Gate for $15 or $18 at the door. There will be a silent auction of a signed limited edition record from Third Man Records. For more information please contact the Blind Willie Johnson Memorial Fund at [email protected].
Seminal gospel-blues artist Blind Willie Johnson is regarded as one of the greatest bottleneck slide guitarists. Yet the Texas street-corner evangelist is known as much for the his powerful and fervent gruff voice as he is for his ability as a guitarist. He became one of Columbia Records best selling "race artists."
The founders of the Blind Willie Johnson Memorial Foundation, Anna Obek and Shane Ford, began researching Mr. Johnson’s life in 2007. Their efforts have uncovered the cemetery where Johnson is buried, as well as previously unknown information regarding Mr. Johnson’s life and whereabouts. Their research has been compiled onto their website www.blindwilliejohnsonfund.com. With the help of the Jefferson County Historical Commission and Museum of the Gulf Coast, they were instrumental in getting a Texas Historical Marker approved at Mr. Johnson’s last known residence in Beaumont, known as the “House of Prayer.” Their love and support of Mr. Johnson’s music and Texas blues has pushed their hard work and dedication.
“It has been a struggle to garner support for Mr. Johnson’s legacy, that is why we have organized this tribute, to get him the memorial he deserves and to support past and future blues and gospel artists,” says Ford.
Blind Willie Johnson is considered one of the best slide guitarists of all time. Johnson's "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground" was included on the Voyager’s Golden Record alongside Bach, Mozart, Chuck Berry, the sound of a heartbeat and others to portray the diversity and culture of life on Earth, should any intelligent life form find it.
Johnson’s life was that of a true blues musician, full of struggles and pain. Blinded as a young child, Johnson made his living by playing on the streets of Texas cities. Legend has it that Johnson was arrested for nearly starting a riot when singing “If I Had My Way I’d Tear This Building Down” in front of a courthouse in New Orleans. He died in 1945 from malarial fever after sleeping in the ruin of his burned home in the Texas heat in Beaumont.
Ry Cooder described Johnson's "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground," as "the most soulful, transcendent piece in all American music."
I've been obsessing over this music all day. I was told about one band on Facebook by Mark Hill; Dark,Dark, Dark. Mark directed me to AllMusic and I just loved them and kept looking for associated bands. There all these bands emerging in the U.S. in the last few years doing this multi-instrumental, Americana, bluegrass, indy stuff and it's all amazing.The term I've heard used to describe this music is Hobo Revival...Last FM describes Hurray For The Riff Raff as
"......currently a 4 piece folk band out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Alynda Lee leads the band with her deep, aching voice, which seems unparalleled yet reminds us of Nona Marie Invie of Dark Dark Dark, and all-star banjo skills. Walt McClements plays accordion, fiddle & toy piano, Aubrey Freeman plays double bass, and Shae Freeman plays the saw, autoharp & vocals."
This music is a perfect soundtrack for Harry and Silvio; all whimsy and creaking and darkness and fun.
1 Comments on Hurray For The Riff Raff!!, last added: 10/10/2009
You might like Saint Seneca, I don't know if they're exactly the hobo revival genre but they are fun to listen to also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ZP8WuYtog
2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn, the German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. British readers will no doubt have been hearing a lot more about him recently thanks the BBC Radio 3’s recent Mendelssohn weekend, celebrating his life and works. With that in mind, today I bring you an excerpt from our book Mendelssohn: A Life in Music by R. Larry Todd, describing Mendelssohn’s years as a child prodigy. His sister, Fanny, also showed an aptitude for composing, as you’ll see below.
Between the ages of eleven and fourteen, in an explosion of precocity, Felix produced well over a hundred compositions, a quantity no less astonishing than its variety—keyboard and chamber works, symphonies, concerti, Lieder, sacred choruses, and operas. When the first collected edition of Felix’s music appeared during the 1870s, most of these efforts, judged stylistically jejune, were excluded. But the launching of a second edition a century later refocused interest on Felix’s apprenticeship, and several early works, including concerti, the twelve string symphonies, and the Singspiel Die beiden Pädagogen, appeared during the 1960s and 1970s, opening new windows into Felix’s formative years. Still, much of this music awaits publication. To the biographer, it reveals a musical diary of a prodigy comparable to precious few European composers.
Zelter scrupulously oversaw Felix’s apprenticeship of bursting creativity. Scarcely less industrious was Fanny, who completed her thirty-second fugue by December 1824; the siblings, Zelter reported to Goethe, were like diligent bees gathering nectar. But Fanny’s parents never imagined she would entertain serious musical aspirations, and it fell to Abraham to temper her enthusiasm. From Paris he wrote in July 1820, as Felix was crafting fugues and beginning his third piano sonata:
Music will perhaps become his profession, while for you it can and must only be an ornament [Zierde], never the root [Grundbaß] of your being and doing. We may therefore pardon him some ambition and desire to be acknowledged in a pursuit which appears very important to him, . . . while it does you credit that you have always shown yourself good and sensible in these matters; . . . Remain true to these sentiments and to this line of conduct; they are feminine, and only what is truly feminine is an ornament to your sex.
Fanny was thus to hang musical ornaments, not build a foundation (Grundbaß, a pun on Kirnberger’s fundamental bass). While her brother essayed increasingly ambitious compositions, she chose piano pieces and songs—the smaller, intimate genres of domestic music making associated with the feminine. In particular, her songs (seventy-four date from 1820 to 1823) earned parental approval. Pampering Abraham’s Francophilia, Fanny preferred the verses of Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794), who had specialized in pastorals and fables derived from Cervantes and Aesop. Typically strophic, Fanny’s settings evince a lyrical melodic gift and a certain “lightness and naturalness,” thereby approaching Abraham’s ideal of the feminine musical decoration. In contrast, Felix wrote few songs during this period, and set only one of Fanny’s Florian texts, about Jeanette, who would choose a shepherd over a king. A rapprochement with Fanny’s musical world, Pauvre Jeanette (ca. March 1820) momentarily bridged the gender gap between the siblings’ musical ambitions, as Felix adopted Fanny’s tuneful, chordal style to produce a simple folksonglike setting that utterly obscured his devotion to Bach’s fugues.
By December 1819 Felix was preoccupied with chorale harmonizations. The exercise book contains several melodies in Zelter’s unrefined hand for which Felix devised a figured-bass line and filled in the alto and tenor parts (Fanny received similar instruction around this time8). The next step was to decorate the note-against-note exercises with flowing eighthnote embellishments. Zelter included three examples of a more specialized technique, derived from Kirnberger, in which the chorale melody migrated to the alto, tenor, or bass. Finally, Zelter allowed Felix himself to compose and harmonize several melodies to verses of the Leipzig poet C. F. Gellert (1715–1769).
Largely neglected today, Gellert was a widely read figure of the German Enlightenment who produced fables, sentimental comedies, and the devotional Geistliche Oden und Lieder (Sacred Odes and Songs, 1757), designed, while sung to popular chorales, to elevate awareness of the religious sublime. Moses Mendelssohn held Gellert in high regard, and Haydn reportedly favored him above all other authors. Several composers—J. F. Doles and Quantz in the eighteenth century, and J. F. W. Kühnau and M. G. Fischer in the nineteenth—created new tunes for these poems, while others set them as a cappella canons (Haydn) or solo Lieder (C. P. E. Bach and Beethoven). Felix’s assignment proved challenging: more often than not, his chorale phrases are melodically stale (some he recycled from earlier exercises), and his cadences are not always harmonically compelling. But the childhood efforts later bore fruit: several of Felix’s mature works contain free chorales, which thus evolved from the modest Gellert chorales to become a compositional device.
Late in March 1820 Zelter began to initiate Felix, barely eleven years old, into strict counterpoint, for centuries the domain of learned musicians. The first topic was double counterpoint at the octave, which Kirnberger had explicated in the conclusion of Die Kunst des reinen Satzes. Felix mastered the technique by writing two-part inventions à la Bach, in which the parts are periodically exchanged. Next Felix took up two-part canon, including the esoteric diminution and augmentation canons, in which one voice replicates the other at twice or half the speed. These musical conundrums reflected Zelter’s own training under Fasch. Probably by the end of May 1820, Felix was analyzing fugal subjects and negotiating the thicket of rules governing “real” (literally transposed) and “tonal” (adjusted) answers in fugal expositions. Since Kirnberger’s massive tome omitted canon and fugue, Zelter now drew upon Marpurg’s Die Abhandlung von der Fuge (Essay on the Fugue), which in 1754 had unraveled Bach’s most cerebral contrapuntal techniques. By the latter part of 1820, Felix was progressing from two- to three-part fugue and canon, over which he labored through the early months of 1821. All told, he recorded about thirty fugues in his exercise book, the last of which, a three-part fugue in C minor, dates from late January 1821. Here the eleven-year-old emerges as a Bach devoté by writing a fugal gigue, recalling the Thomascantor’s fondness for combining that stylized baroque dance with artful contrapuntal displays (as in the finale of the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto). Thus did Felix, as Marpurg quipped of Bach, shake “paper intricacies out of his sleeve.”
0 Comments on Shaking paper intricacies out of his sleeve: The young Mendelssohn as of 1/1/1900
While waiting for go ahead on some projects I'm drawing all sorts of stuff that pops into my head. This is a drawing I did of Jean Sibelius, one of my favorite composers. More and more I'm enjoying late 19th and 20th century music, it sounds so immediate and exciting. I thought I'd give you a sample playlist of what I'm listeninfg to while I work these days.
Sibelius~Vilolin Concerto, Opus 47
Górecki~Largo, Cantabile
Nyman~All Imperfect Things
Coates~Summer Day Suite
Copland~4 Pianos Blues #1"Freely Poetic"
Dvořák ~Concerto For Cello, Allegro
Prokofiev~Dqnce Of The Knights
Martinu~Works For Piano
Satie~Gymnopedie#1
11 Comments on 20th Century Playlist (Sibelius), last added: 4/6/2009
Awesome playlist! You might also like Vagn Holmboe, Arvo Part, Peteris Vasks, Toru Takemitsu, Franz Schmidt, and maybe Morton Feldman, and lots of others. I spend way too much time deciding what to listen to while I work :) And nice Sibelius drawing.
by Rosanne Parry. Random House, 2011
by Elizabeth Rusch, paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Francher. Tricycle Press, 2011 (review copy provided by the publisher)
Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George by Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome, Schwartz & Wade, 2011. 
Heart of a Shepherd was so well received and talked up that I know this book, too, will have Parry's uniquely sensitive and wise touch. Sounds like a really great read.