For the love of Academia

Rolling in the Deep: the video

2011-07-29T12:56:00.001-04:00

The new hit single by Adele somehow escaped my notice until a few weeks ago. When I did finally hear it, I also checked out the video on Youtube, and was quite taken by it. I love the rooms filled with glass and ceramics (though they seem like a terrible waste!), but most of all the dancer in the room filled with sand caught my eye. Something about that room - the low ceiling, the harsh lighting, the sand - evokes a subterranean chamber. I was reminded of the mine shaft I visited last summer in Lansford, PA. The dancer herself, though, brings out a more savage and distant aspect of the scene. She is graceful and full of an inscrutable purpose, seemingly ready to bring down the walls and ceiling with her dance. I see Gagool, the "witch" in King Solomon's Mines, in her. She is something so earthy and distant from Adele's lament of love ill-spent that the video itself becomes more interesting than the shabbily "veiled" lyrics. The dancer joins with the beat of the drums to surpass the singer's polished wail.

Musical Theater = that which causes post-play depression

2011-07-19T23:46:00.002-04:00

My last gen ed class of college is on a very familiar and special subject for me: Musical Theater. Having grown up on Broadway music and occasionally indulged in the theater bug at the local Village Players Theater, this is a class I love despite the distant aspect of it (like my statistics class, THDA 440 is online this summer). For the first assignment, I had to describe what "musical theater means to me:" which is to say, the dual association of the classic Broadway shows and Andrew Lloyd Webber 1980s hits which my parents enjoyed, and the offshoot of the tradition of opera, my favorite discipline in the arts. My dad was an avid amateur musical actor and some of my earliest memories are of him learning lines, going to rehearsals, and watching “old” musicals on VHS. My start on the stage was with him (Mr. Bumble, in an impressive costume he handmade) in "Oliver!" - my brother and I were 2 of the 3 smallest orphans in the cast, and I learned just how bad I am at choreography and how depressed I get when a show ends! There is something so engaging about working on music, dance, and words collaboratively. The interaction with the material and your fellow actors, not to mention the audience, is compelling and consuming enough to leave a vacant space in your life when it is completed. I probably won't do much musical theater in the future, but the teamwork and the music/words interface are two of "my favorite things."

Prescott Park performance: The Wizard of Oz

2011-07-19T13:09:00.001-04:00

This Sunday night I finally saw a Prescott Park Arts Festival musical performance, and the show couldn't be more appropriate. I have always loved every aspect of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz - the colors, the characters, the music, and how many tiny details became apparent to me with every viewing. Seeing this film recreated as a musical play is a risky business in part because of the numerous details we all love about Oz. Some details like the puff of steam out of the Tin Man's hat (the scariest part of the film for 4-year-old me!) can't easily be recreated in a live performance, and the beloved actors themselves will not be present. Expectations for the live actors, then, are high: they must look and sound enough like the originals not to jar our eyes and ears, but seem authentic on their own merits. Sunday's performance struck a good balance between re-creating the original and reviving the show in an original manner.
Christine Dulong had the "look" of Dorothy, especially at the distance of my table, and her voice was fresh and clean - not at all an affected reproduction of Garland's manner. She is a UNH theater grad and I am very proud! Knate Higgins and Chris Bradley are a bit young for the Scarecrow and Tin Man respectively, if you are comparing them to Ray Bolger and Jack Haley, but in their own right they are good actors and fine dancers, too. Scottie McLaughlin really stood out as the Lion: "tall dark and handsome" with a grand baritone voice and good comedic skills, I hope to see him in many more roles! The older members of the cast were also excellent: Cathy McKay, John Flynn, and Claudia Faulkner as Auntie Em/Glinda, Uncle Henry/Oz/Marvel/etc, and Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch of the West anchored the show in its many doublings, with plenty of character. Flynn called the winning ticket at the intermission raffle as well - he is an all around showman.
One exciting surprise for me was the sound and orchestral effects. I expected live players in the pit, but because of the excellent sound tech and the versatile keyboards, the pit was represented by a few horns and a keyboard. Many little details of the film were faithfully brought to life through this team's efforts.
Finally, perhaps my favorite aspect of Wizard of Oz: Dorothy's costume (and really, all the principals'). Ms. Dulong had beautiful ruby slippers, and the Scarecrow, Lion, and especially Tin Man sported fantastic costumes and makeup. And Dorothy's dress, black and white gingham in the Kansas scene, became the classic blue when transported to Munchkinland - staying that color for the final scene back in Kansas. I wonder if this was on purpose, to show how Dorothy brought Oz with her?

Opera on the air: Star Edition

2011-07-14T14:03:00.001-04:00

This week's opera broadcast include some of my favorite living voices! First up, WFMT is broadcasting Il Postino, from the LA Opera with Placido Domingo as the poet Neruda. This should be on air Saturday July 16 at 1pm ET ("PREFEED: Friday, July 15, 2011 - 1500 ET | LIVE FEED: Saturday, July 16, 2011 - 1300 ET").

WETA is playing Handel's Alcina with a cast headlined by two excellent singers: Anja Harteros (Alcina), and Vesselina Kasarova (Ruggiero). Broadcast at 1pm ET July 16.

Finally, NPR's World of Opera is featuring Ernani, with one of my favorite living basses, Ferruccio Furlanetto, as Silva. (He was an adorable Leporello to Sam Ramey's Giovanni in a memorable 1987 Salzburg Festival performance with Karajan.) The rest of the cast is none too shabby either: Rudy Park (Ernani); Dimitra Theodossiou (Elvira); and Marco De Felice (Don Carlo). WDAV is livestreaming this.

SciAm on vacuums and subways, and a novel I love

2011-07-11T15:06:00.000-04:00

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/2011/07/11/a-series-of-tubes/ The physics in this post are a bit beyond my level of understanding+ability, but it's well written and exciting to read nonetheless. Thanks Jennifer Ouelette for reminding me of Downsiders - a YA novel (which I loved!) about underground dwellings in NYC.

Star Wars: an opera in 5 acts

2011-07-11T14:39:00.000-04:00

Who hasn't thought of Star Wars as a Meyerbeer-style rescue opera?
Ok, maybe that is just the opera geek in me. But the cast and plot have much in common with the grand opera of the 19th century. Hero rescues princess and wins a battle in the struggle against an oppressive empire, amid local color, grand spectacle, and grand music.
Ironically, the music would be one major obstacle in the translation of Star Wars from film epic to grand opera: John Williams doesn't seem likely to write an opera himself or allow his music to be incorporated into one. So a composer taking the story (with rights to use it) would need to create a new musical vocabulary for this piece: something iconic and unique enough to distinguish itself from the film's music, while balancing between operatic and vernacular to reach an audience appropriate to such a fusion of grand art and modern fairy tale. I don't think I could dream in my lifetime of doing Star Wars justice. But maybe someone else out there could.

"Lover's Concerto:" elements of the classical

2011-07-11T13:32:00.001-04:00

In the recent book, Beautiful Monsters, Michael Long takes a look at my personal favorite subject area: the relationship between classical and popular elements in music. Long is talking about the classical in pop today, as opposed to pop in classical music or classical "popular" elements such as opera themes. Beautiful Monsters features an encyclopedic dash through modern popular music, with hundreds of pieces referenced in passing. You would do well to read this book next to YouTube, because each reference is complemented by the actual sound material (not all of us have this music at instant mental recall) and the references are frequently cross-referenced.
One piece which I gradually recognized as familiar was "Lover's Concerto" by the Toys. I had first heard this piece as a small child, but not matched the piece to any title (though I still recall most of the lyrics and timbres perfectly) or group name. More recently, I had been stunned to find out that this piece is based on another famous miniature, of a very different era and aesthetic: a minuet by Bach. Duh. The meter is now 4/4, instead of the standard 3/4 of minuets, and in addition to having lyrics unrelated to Bach, the song is complemented by saxophone solos and a girl-group sound typical of the early 1960s.
Long's concern is with the use of the term "concerto," seemingly a misnomer here, to "place" the song in a classical register. At the very beginning of the song, before the band starts, several "concerto" chords on a piano are heard. The song's writers, Linzer and Randel, may indeed have felt "concerto" was foreign enough, and classical enough, to label the song with some exotic flavor, as well as to nod towards the classical origins of the melody. (I am unaware of the story of the artistic choice to use Bach material here in the first place; Wikipedia and allmusic cite the 'Bach' melody as well as the attribution of this piece to Bach, but do not hint at any motivation for the "classical" feel evoked here.)
The structure of the song is very tightly woven together, with the solo-group interplay intersecting with the instruments of the band. While the lyrics seem irrelevant to the title, they are well fit to the notes sung, with few awkward moments. When the saxophone solo takes up the melody during the break, the articulations are preserved from the vocal statement, slurring together the notes to which multi-syllable words are set. Tone painting is mostly avoided, even when dealing with lyrics which address "the rain / which falls," and this seems to avoid the full potential for cliche in a song which can only be heard through cliches.

As the song begins in this live video from the show "Hullabaloo," a bust of (presumably) J.S. Bach is seen in the foreground. The intro to the song features saxophones and a "hook" reminiscent of the Four Seasons, another group produced by the same label and often the same songwriters. This hook does not recur, but the sax scoring continues as a theme throughout. The classical bust as scene-setting reinforces the "novelty song" character of this piece; perhaps audiences were aware of the Bach association, making this scenery the only reference to the actual Bach material. In the personal consumption of the song, the only equivalent was this "Concerto" in the title and the piano chords of the first few bars, after which the "concerto" elements fade away.
"Lover's Concerto" continues to resonate throughout the book, as his many encyclopedic references bounce around and reappear. Long takes into account many different threads relating to this song: pastoralism, antique elements of the text, and the classical ethos evoked by the title. The great thing for me about classical music and popular music as two complementary bodies of work is the way we can enjoy a good pop song or a fun classical piece at different levels - the structure, the bones are there if you look, regardless of the (often enjoyable) surface material.

7/8 of a college degree: looking back on the major(s)

2011-07-09T21:15:00.000-04:00

College has been somewhat of a playground for me, though without the typical drinking and party scene. Academically, I have felt encouraged and ambitious enough to attempt a double major, and complete 2 minors.
My major in music had been a sure thing since no earlier than January of 2008, a month or so before auditioning, and before that, I had expected to major in something basic like Spanish. The music major I chose was a broad specialization – Liberal Studies, the former Undifferentiated option, and designed to revitalize interest at UNH in music history and create opportunities for more custom focuses, like ethnomusicology. The curriculum appealed to me, and the focus of the major seemed less performance-oriented – a plus for a self-taught amateur enthusiast. Once at UNH, I participated in both a lesson studio, and the Liberal Studies symposium group. Both were experiences of great value, and seeing the work of my peers in the history field is always sweetly humbling for me. I may know them from classes and UNH life, but I am always amazed to see the breadth of knowledge, different experience, and devotion they bring to their studies! The Liberal Studies experience– classes, professors, and peers – has seen me through 3 years now of UNH music, and in the last year, has inspired me to look towards graduate study in musicology as the next step in my academic career.
The very first class I attended at UNH (and, unless drivers’ ed counts, my very first classroom experience ever after 12 years of homeschool education) was elementary Italian, with Amy Boylan. My operatic vocabulary, functional but creaky, served me well as I found that already I understood Italian at a high level for this intro class. Professor Boylan suggested I enter Mayder Dravasa’s class the following semester and essentially skip a year’s classes – taking the beginning of 1st year and the end of 2nd year back to back. After this much Italian, I was ready for the UNH in Italy at Ascoli Piceno semester abroad, along with 17 other UNH students and piano professors Chris and Arlene Kies. Combining the classes at UNH with an independent study and my Ascoli classes, I had completed a minor with hardly any effort. My only regret was not paying more attention in Amy’s class when we learned about Italian menus and restaurants. I figured this would never come in handy, not expecting to be in Italy a year later..it would have been very useful!
Spring of 2010 brought me very close to declaring a second major in Linguistics. The subject matter fascinates me and the detailed work of surveys, syntax, and morphology scratched some serious academic itches. To understand accents, dialects, and why words look and sound like they do – the ultimate geek experience! I ultimately decided against the major due to the tiny size of the linguistics department – the music community, though small, is about 10 times the size of linguistics and allows for a little bit more cross-fertilization of ideas. I occasionally fantasize about a graduate degree or second B.A. in linguistics, and applying myself to the study of Italian dialects.
My farthest digression from music started around the same time as my classes in Historical and Comparative Linguistics. I took a class on Earth History with the chair of the Geology department, and again, scratched academic itch. Here was the grand panorama of evolution, plate tectonics, and the solar system. I was hooked. Over summer 2010, I made countless spreadsheets of major requirements, trying to configure a plan which allowed me to graduate on time and still hit the high points of two extremely divergent disciplines. In the end, class options limited the viability of said plan (and I do feel more competent in the humanities/arts than in sciences – if only I had had this discussion in high school!) and I will graduate with geology as my second minor. Geology, Italian, and linguistics are three fields dear to my heart which I still enjoy keeping up with – and hope to revisit over the years if I succeed in creating an academic career. UNH served me well in offering all these options. I would indeed “major in UNH studies” if there were such an option!

Opera Spotlight: L'Italiana in Algeri, La Boheme, and Handel's Hercules

2011-07-07T12:13:00.000-04:00

NPR World of Opera features Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, with Lawrence Brownlee.

WETA is playing the Castleton Festival's La Bohème

July 9, 2011, 1:00 pm conducted by Lorin Maazel

And Chicago Lyric's broadcast of Hercules (Handel) is on WFMT at 12pm CT (1pm ET).

Mozart's influence: statistical procrastination

2011-07-01T12:56:00.000-04:00

I recently completed an online course in Statistics (through UNH's Sociology department). It was, in many ways, the "easiest" class I have ever had, because there was no attendance and I took no notes. There were readings, homework assignments, and quizzes, which did keep me sporadically on my toes, but overall the concept of the class stayed rather remote from my mind. Or so I thought.
Here I am a week later, contemplating the use of statistical methods (some of which, such as regression, I am aware that I never even read about for this class, but may be useful) to assess the influence of Haydn and Mozart on later composers (Beethoven, Schubert perhaps). My plan involves collecting data from piano sonata slow movements (excluding theme-and-variations) such as relative key, melodic contour of the opening phrase, length, and tempo marking to compare "apples to apples" from Mozart's work to Beethoven's.
Perhaps this is the kind of academic minutia which real scholars dismiss as bean-counting, and I might be better off writing a paper or a piece of my own. I certainly do not know enough about statistics yet to use multi-variate analysis or any of the techniques I have read about recently in books on politics (Why Iowa?: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process) or broad social science (Natural Experiments of History - excellent book!). But down the road, my little database might provide me with an interesting sandbox for experiments!

Opera Spotlight: Il Trittico, Lohengrin, and Semele

2011-06-30T21:01:00.000-04:00

WETA is featuring Puccini's Triptych this Saturday at 1pm. Listen on the livestream to this performance from last July, conducted by Lorin Maazel. IMSLP has the scores:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Suor_Angelica_(Puccini,_Giacomo)
http://imslp.org/wiki/Il_tabarro_(Puccini,_Giacomo)
http://imslp.org/wiki/Gianni_Schicchi_(Puccini,_Giacomo)
and the libretti are at Operaglass:
http://opera.stanford.edu/Puccini/IlTabarro/libretto.html
http://opera.stanford.edu/Puccini/SuorAngelica/libretto.html
http://opera.stanford.edu/Puccini/GianniSchicchi/libretto.html

Lohengrin is this week's Chicago Lyric broadcast, with Sir Andrew Davis conducting a great cast headed up by Johan Botha and Emily Magee. WFMT also runs a live stream - Lohengrin plays at 12:00pm Central Time (1pm Eastern). Here's the score, from IMSLP, and the libretto.

NPR World of Opera will be featuring Handel's Semele from the Champs-Elysees Theatre. Here's the libretto and the score at IMSLP.

7/8 finished with my college degree: looking back on the gen ed experience

2011-06-29T12:44:00.008-04:00

I will miss college classes. UNH's 40 credit general education curriculum does only require 1 class of all students (English 401), as pointed out to me by the friend who gave me the unofficial campus tour, and the other 36 credits are yours to explore new areas. The ability to dive headfirst into a new discipline (albeit occasionally taking that dive into the shallow end with unexpected results) has been a mainstay of my education thus far. If I could, I would have taken more of these forays into the rest of campus life, and reforms to broaden gen ed lists have crossed my mind several times.
People of my mother's generation, and farther back, Teddy Roosevelt's, have seen gen eds as an arbitrary component of a college education, and a forced sidetrack from the majors in which they are concentrating. I wish future generations could experience a more unified curriculum, where classes drawn from different areas of study demonstrate just how many different ways science and art are "done" at a university. Gen eds should produce wonder, and perhaps some ambition for further pursuit of these disciplines - not a rote presentation for the sake of both instructor and student's "required" participation.
Wouldn't it be great if during a semester, every student became acquainted with several branches of science which are as interdependent as they are independent, such as biology, chemistry, and physics! The 40 credits of gen eds could be re-distributed into several semester-length in depth looks at various areas of study at UNH, divided by broad themes. Already these required classes are distributed by category, and draw from different colleges within the university; interdisciplinary classes are a natural extension of these and the Inquiry courses. Students could spend their classroom time with professors who love their work. Instead of cramming for midterms, students could learn about the methods, achievements, and principles which unite disciplines - and even learn about the contributions of science to art and vice versa.
There is so much information to encounter in the disciplines at UNH which make up the gen ed pool, and I do not believe that real proficiency is expected as the goal of the general education requirement. Instead of a goal of "mastery" of basic chemistry, or linguistics, or American history, why not allow students to encounter these concepts in a presentation by enthusiastic professors, emphasizing the vast range of work and beauty their subjects embrace?

Countertenor Nicholas Spanos

2011-06-28T22:42:00.001-04:00

In search of countertenor versions of the late 19th century French chanson repertoire, I encountered the gorgeous voice of Nicholas Spanos. His repertoire embraces all the usual standbys of modern countertenors - Baroque and older opera, with a good showing of French chanson, some Handel oratorio in English, Spanish folk songs, and Schubert lied. As well as possessing a beautiful timbre and well-chosen vibrato, Spanos is also a very handsome fellow (a necessary trait for fame in this media age, I am sorry to say), with the properly "exotic" tall-dark-handsome look of a leading tenor heartthrob. In short, I hope to see much more of this young singer in the future! Check out plavos's channel on Youtube for the extensive collection of his repertoire.
Now if only I could hear him sing "Lascia ch'io pianga"......

"Nixon in China" and video game practice

2011-06-27T12:09:00.000-04:00

In John Adams' description of the creation process for Nixon in China (recently reposted here), one description which stuck out to me addressed the technical demands of Adams' music.

At the end of an act the expressions on some players’ faces resemble someone who’s just survived an A-level Japanese video game.

The relationship between video game proficiency and musical proficiency is a striking simile, and one that (at a very low level of interaction) I enjoy. Sometimes I enjoy practicing piano with the same low-level ambition with which I enjoy a good game of Frogger 3D: similar pitfalls, new places, new sounds, eye-hand coordination. Perhaps if I was more ambitious at video games, I'd practice the piano more!
Funny.

A Good Opera read, from Holdekunst Blog

2011-06-24T11:29:00.002-04:00

http://holdekunst.com/blog/classical-beach-reading-robert-levines-weep-shudder-die.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HoldeKunstClassicalMusicBlog+%28Holde+Kunst+Classical+Music+Blog%29 Thanks for posting!

Diva Disappointment: "Firework" and "Edge of Glory"

2011-06-23T20:44:00.000-04:00

Katy Perry's recent single "Firework" left me wishing the song had been written for a different diva. The message was in line with other recent work by artists like Lady Gaga and Pink, dealing with low self-esteem and encouragement (at various levels of empowering, like "Born this way" - more about that in a minute - or sappy, like "F***ing Perfect"). But the voice itself was lacking. With a wide range of an octave and a half, "Firework" requires strength, clarity, and a range of expression across the registers. (In my opinion, pop vocals usually play up the differences and uneven qualities of a wide range for expressive purposes, unlike classical vocals where we expect the voice to remain consistent in size and quality in all registers.) Perry's voice has plenty of bite and clarity in the low register, making the verse consistent overall with much of her trademark work (perky pop songs with an edge, like California Gurls). But where the verse begins to transition to the chorus, around "just own the night" her technique lets her down and the voice becomes spread and increasingly strained. The chorus itself is in the highest register Perry reaches and it is a painful reminder that, as tart and clever as Perry's persona is, she can never become the next Mariah Carey, Beyonce, or even...
(I hate to say it)
Lea Michelle.
Yes, the cover which redeems "Firework" for me comes from an all too likely source: Glee. As much as I can't watch Glee without deconstructing fervently the show's small-minded premise and biased plotlines, I have to admit that the show's star Lea Michelle has the voice that Perry lacks. (Artificial amplification and editing techniques aside, because of course both "Glee" episodes and Katy Perry performances and recordings are aided by technology.) Her rendition of "Firework" brought out the athletic nature of the rising line during the transition from verse to chorus with sophomoric perfection - this is, after all, a song to make the losers in you and me feel good about being ourselves - and gave the music all the timbral color and personality that Perry could throw at it. If she can get past having reached stardom for a teenage sitcom and get to Broadway, Lea Michelle seems to have the voice that it takes.

The title track from Lady Gaga's new album "Born this way" hit all the right notes for me. She mentions "transgender" and a whole host of other non-radio-friendly terms which need to be said (though admittedly, "transgender" would be hard to fit into any lyrical scheme - and Gaga places it where it has the most bite and sounds the most idiomatic, in a spoken break). And her main theme is one I support: you are who you are; and because of her explicit reference to gender identity, among other things, this is not just a drinking song a la Ke$ha, but one that gets to the root of discrimination. Celebrating unique identity is different when you are channeling the average, typical, and broad-based appealing, versus that which doesn't usually qualify for airplay.
That said, the second single leaves the one element I am so attracted to of Gaga's music. Her electro-pop sound and distant allure keep her listeners questioning (even the ridiculous questions perpetuated this mystique, like "is she a man") and capitalized on the artificial nature of most modern pop. Rebecca Black used AutoTune and was rightfully laughed at, because the timbre created by her natural endowment and that of the engineers was laughable and strange in a bad way. Gaga's artificial sound remains attractive, even if also somewhat off-putting. "The Edge of Glory" closes the gap between artist, object (as in "Alejandro" or "LoveGame" - a person of sometimes unspecified gender who is being drawn towards Gaga's persona while we watch the seduction), and listener, and instead reaches for the tired cliche of love songs. The lyrics are easily paraphrased, but let me allow Enrique Iglesias to do it for me. "Tonight I'm loving you" - a sexy song despite its lyrics - exotic appeal is played up by Iglesias here, but not by Gaga in "Edge of Glory." Exotic appeal is the artistic element eschewed here, for basically the first time in the oeuvre of Gaga. We do not look to her for "Silly Love Songs" and I don't believe even Clarence Clemons' sax will boost "Edge of Glory" to the level Gaga usually reaches.

"Opera's Shakespeare:" why Verdi made one NYT critic's Top Ten

2011-06-23T14:57:00.001-04:00

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/top-10-composers-hailing-operas-shakespeare-and-its-proust/ And I couldn't agree more!

John Adams on "Nixon in China"

2011-06-23T13:31:00.000-04:00

http://www.earbox.com/posts/103
Read Adams' recollection of creating the roles and matching the singers to the music. He is self-effacing about his vocal writing and assesses his own music with a clear eye and a very approachable manner.

Listening to 20th century music: spotlight on a favorite blog

2011-06-21T11:51:00.000-04:00

I studied the Quartet for the End of Time in Professor Lori Dobbins' class last year at UNH and loved Messiaen's language. Here is an excellent guide to the work from Michael Barry's blog. Thanks for posting!

Retiring David Tyree on why gay marriage equals anarchy

2011-06-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2011/06/retired_football_player_says_s.php
Sometimes the things people say are just too ridiculous to make up.

Skepticblog » “A Boy Named Sue” Revisited

2011-06-21T11:18:00.000-04:00

Skepticblog » “A Boy Named Sue” Revisited
A list of top names by profession is statistically scrutinized by the Skepticblog.

Songs to Keep Cool

2011-06-19T22:20:00.000-04:00

"Moondance," which I reviewed recently, is a very "chill" song. Here are a few more favorites for cool summer nights.

Gnarls Barkley: Crazy Cee Lo Green evokes craziness in such a smooth, seductive way that you almost feel like being crazy with him. Maybe I'm crazy...
The Doors: Riders on the Storm This song evokes open space, with the long instrumental breaks, even drum beat and ambient "rain" sounds. The lyrics have an alienated quality which functions surprisingly well with Morrison's non-chalant delivery. If he's been left out in the rain, he doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get inside.
Peter Frampton: Do you feel like we do The alien quality of the talkbox on Frampton's guitar is very modernistic - taking what is familiar (human voice, guitar), and making it unfamiliar by mixing these two elements together. "Do you feel like we do" begins with an upbeat section which seems only vaguely related to the "chill" part of the song (starting around the 4 minute mark). The talkbox appears at 7:23 and thrills the crowd.
Phil Collins: In the Air Tonight I'm not sure what Collins sees coming, but the atmosphere is expectant, dark, and as spacious as that of "Riders on the Storm."
CCR: I Heard It Through the Grapevine Quite different from the music of the California Raisins commercial (Marvin Gaye, Claymation-style), CCR's remix of this song has a cold, cool take on jealousy. In common with the other songs in this list, the mode is vaguely minor (the original leans more towards major mode Motown with blue notes) with steady drums and dark, bass-heavy atmosphere. This track is amazingly long for radio airplay at just over 11 minutes, with the band mulling over the melody and bass riff between vocal episodes.

Father's Day in American music

2011-06-18T20:17:00.023-04:00

http://new.headlinecountry.net/?p=186
An excellent Father's Day spotlight on country music tributes to our fathers, always with us. Thanks Tom Roland for the list!

This post dedicated to the memories of my dad, a Father's Day baby who would be 72 today, and another dad I remember fondly, the dad of 4 of my oldest friends. Here are two songs that remind me of them.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning, from the film featuring Gordon MacRae. Years ago, my dad sang Curley in a local production of Oklahoma!. This was for years afterward his signature song, and his voice was still beautiful into his 60s.
I Believe, by Diamond Rio. This song appeared on the radio shortly after my friends' dad Keith was diagnosed with cancer. I may not "believe in ghosts" like the lyrics, but the song still makes me cry.

Songs for the Road

2011-06-17T14:10:00.007-04:00

The one accessory any car of mine must have is a radio. The car is my favorite (and usually, only) place to hear current popular music beyond YouTube, and therefore my only automatically produced playlist (I've never liked Pandora's interface - too much of my own choices imposed on what I hear).
"Driving" or "train" songs especially appeal to me. I'm not sure if this is due to my actual music preferences, or my love for automobile travel (and pseudo-nostalgia for/idolization of train travel). Here are some great driving songs - the ones that sound like you're on the road, not just songs about being on the road.

God is great, Beer is good - Billy Currington

Ok, it's not about driving or travel at all, but the rhythm's steady "chugga chugga" beat and leisurely pace (cut time; according to my metronome, about 72bpm) has that perfect "road" sound. The song itself is simplistic 'easy listening country', with a I V vi IV progression for the verse and an interesting if sentimental twist at the end.

Me and Bobby McGee- the Kris Kristofferson version
This time, a song about travel, with a similar beat. Kristofferson's recording isn't a bit rushed, very laid back. Janis Joplin's version is iconic but more high-energy - contrasting qualities which extend beyond the metronome mark and the rhythm section to the voices themselves.

Hey, Good Lookin'

the 2000s cover by Jimmy Buffett and friends from 2004 is an entirely different animal compared to the Hank Williams original. The "good times" community feel of a group of star soloists sharing a good-natured pick-up line is perfect for summer and road trips - though once again, the beat of this song places it in this category, not so much the content. The quality of the voice is once again key - like Joplin and Kristofferson, it's not so much the authenticity of the original singer but the atmosphere the cover creates.

End of the Line - Traveling Wilburys
The music video for this quintessentially "travel" song takes place on a train. The Traveling Wilburys were an all-star group that included Eric Clapton,George Harrison, and Bob Dylan.

Two of Us - Beatles
A little more upbeat than the other songs here, this piece is actually much more nostalgic and almost bittersweet than the "in the moment" mood evoked by most of this list.
I could probably make a playlist of just Beatles road songs. Here's another:

Any Road
Off of George Harrison's last album, Brainwashed, this song features his son Dhani on guitar and a world-wise lyric from Harrison. Definitely a must for any Beatles road trip.

Mockingbird - James Taylor + Carly Simon
I heard this on a drive through upstate NY, and it makes excellent driving music. The singers' voices mix in an inventive quasi-polyphony; the original version of the song was written and sung by siblings Inez and Charlie Foxx.

City of New Orleans: Willie Nelson
Suggested to me for this list - this is an all-time favorite of mine and mentioned on my post Songs from my mother, but it is also equally appropriate here for its "train" theme and rhythm. Actually, this song is always appropriate!
(As a side note, Willie Nelson sings great music for any road trip playlist. "On the Road Again" has a much more upbeat feel though, not the "train" beat this post highlights.)

Superconductor: From Mahler to Meat Loaf

2011-06-16T14:37:00.000-04:00

Superconductor: From Mahler to Meat Loaf: "Rock's Roots in the 19th Century Art Song" Thanks Superconductor for this great spotlight! The interactions of popular music with classical material are worth a lifetime of study.