Dancing about Architecture

This is a piece for percussion ensemble.

It has a siren in it, and I like any piece with a good siren in it, whether it’s George Antheil’s Ballet Mècanique or Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61”. It starts out quite foreboding, quiets down, and then has loud bits interspersed with quiet bits (although not many of those). If the piece has some kind of structure, then I can’t discern it. I like it just for its sound and maybe that’s all that Varèse intended.

One weekend last fall I was visiting my nieces and nephew and we were recording some stuff for fun on an 8-track portable studio I had just bought. On one piece, which I called “The Crazy Song” (and it was just that), my 4-year old nephew wanted to overdub his toy drum machine on every single track. Of course, I didn’t let him do that, because we wanted to use most of the tracks for other weird, mostly vocal things that my nieces (6- and 8-years old) were thinking up. Anyway, I think maybe my nephew was feeling a close artistic kinship with Varèse last weekend, which I, with my more conservative views on music, thwarted. I felt kind of bad about that when I thought about it later and the next time I visit I’m going to let him do his own recording with 8 tracks of only drums.

TUESDAY SALON
Featuring works by BRYCE BEVERLIN II, BILL FRANK, STANLEY WOOLNER, and PAUL REINERS.

Tuesday, August 15 * 7:30 p.m.
Zeitgeist Studio
275 East Fourth Street, Suite 100 in St. Paul

This piece is for solo piano. It is mostly played ‘within’ the piano, by strumming the strings directly, rather than using the keyboard as is usually done. I think I’ve read that Cowell wrote this piece to be played completely within the piano on the strings directly, but there are little 3- and 4-note phrases that sound to me like they’re played using the keys.

The sound of the piano in this piece is ghostly and can sound eerily human at times. (The theremin can sound this way too; you could probably write a neat piece like this for both piano (strumming the strings) and theremin. Actually, I happen to own both a piano and a theremin, so maybe I should try this.)

I would like to see how the piece is notated. I listened to two different versions of this. The “notes” played don’t seem to be identical (even the few that seem to be played on the keyboard), so I imagine the notation is not exact and many details are left to the performer. (Though I suppose the piece could be notated exactly, if you were to do it as harp music is notated. Although, on the other hand, that might not work, since (I think) the way strings are arranged—the way they cross over each other and so on—might differ from piano to piano (it definitely differs between grand pianos and upright pianos)).

I can’t make up my mind which of these two versions is the spookiest (and, therefore, the best). Version 1 is louder and has one part that sounds like a goblin gibbering and parts that sound like a child crying. Version 2 is quieter (although it has quite a few loud bits, too) and I think this makes it more eerie than Version 1 by just a tad (maybe). Also, Version 2 has some weird sounds that sound like leather creaking. I can’t imagine what it is, whether it’s just an accidental artifact of the recording or was intentional. Version 2 also has a part that sounds like a bunch of demons laughing.

This work is composed for chorus with a male soloist and orchestral accompaniment. It is comprised of several sections, which are all tied together with the “Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?” lyric. It’s mostly a march, but there is a slower, more tender lyric section in the middle. It ends quietly with military drums fading away into the distance (or into the heavens).

I’m not sure what to make of this piece. I like it—the “Are you washed in the Blood of the Lamb?” melody runs through my head a lot. Some of the tunes sound vaguely familiar and based on what I’ve read about Ives (CD liner notes and the Jan Swafford biography, mainly), I would guess that parts of the melody are based on old New England, Protestant hymns.

I actually visited Danbury, Connecticut on Charles Ives’ birthday last year. I highly recommend making the pilgrimage. Nancy Sudik, exec. director of the Danbury Music Centre, was in charge of the celebration and all the people there were really great.

One of the things I liked about this work (and I liked this work a lot) is that it’s very short and very quiet. I burned all the pieces for this assignment onto CD and would listen to them both at home and in the car. Now, when a piece is fairly long, as are some of the other works on this CD, your attention can drift. It doesn’t really matter (or at least that’s what you think), if your attention wanders for a few seconds. However, if your attention wanders even for a few seconds during one of Five Pieces, you’ve missed half the piece! So, I would always pay especially close attention when Five Pieces was playing (this was also due to the fact that they’re so soft for the most part). Sometimes you think a short piece cannot be as ‘important’ as longer pieces, but I think Five Pieces belies that idea. Actually, shortness is another thing I like about Satie’s compositions (besides the fact that they’re brilliant). It’s also what I like about that thing Paul McCartney sings on that short, untitled fragment on The White Album. The one that goes, “Can you take me back where I came from? Can you take me back?”. (In McCartney’s case, it’s a throwaway, but yet it’s not.)

Download Pierre Boulez

It’s “Elvis in the ground, waiting on me tonight,” not “Elvis in the ground, there’ll be no beer tonight”.

“Elvis in the ground, waiting on me tonight.”

“Elvis in the ground, waiting on me tonight.”

“Elvis in the ground, waiting on me tonight.”

Download The Replacements

Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep while listening to some Debussy followed by Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw. The Debussy will lull you into a peaceful, somnolent state. Then A Survivor from Warsaw will come on and it…will…scare…the…living…hell…out…of…you. (But I guess that’s sort of the point of it, isn’t it?) I learned this from personal experience.



Download A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, performed by Erich Leinsdorf.

This caused riots in Paris? In Paris?? I guess times have changed. This almost sounds like it could be from a Disney movie. It would fit right in with parts of The Lion King. My little nieces would love dancing along to this piece. Seriously, I do know that this was featured in Fantasia. I can’t listen to it without picturing dinosaurs lifting up their heads and looking around. Anyway, I guess this is what Christopher Small meant when he wrote in his book Music, Society, Education about “this ability of our society to absorb into itself and neutralize revolt that has characterized the history of music […] in our century”.

Rick Danko was the coolest guy who ever lived. I just rewatched The Last Waltz this weekend for at least the 6th time. I saw it in the movie theater in high school when it came out. My sister, my best friend, and I drove down to the nearest “big city” (Des Moines, Iowa), a 2 1/2 hour-drive, so that we could see it and sat through 2 showings in a row. I bought it on VHS and watched it then. I bought it on DVD and finally got around to watching it last week. At first, I thought that would be a bit of a chore: there are 2 commentary tracks, and, of course, the movie without commentary. But, it wasn’t a chore at all—each viewing was interesting.

There is one scene where Rick Danko is showing Martin Scorsese around Shangra-La studios. They eventually go back to the master control-room. Scorsese asks Rick what he’s been up to. Rick is a person who doesn’t talk too much. He says he’s been “keeping busy” and “making music” and something else that I couldn’t make out. Then Rick says something you can’t hear to the engineer, but it’s almost as if the engineer has read his mind, because he’s already cued up “Sip the Wine”. It almost seems as if it might have been scripted, but it doesn’t look like it was. Rick pushes his hat down on his head and his face is in shadows as the beautiful melody plays. If I could write one melody that nice, I’d die happy. I hit the ‘scan back’ on my DVD remote control and watched that scene a half-dozen times.



Download Rick Danko and Garth Hudson.

Featuring works by CAMPELL, CROSWELL, HARPER, JENSEN, KEMPE, and REINERS

In past years, the most popular Tuesday Salon sessions have featured Zeitgeist as the presenting ensemble and we expect this year will be no different!

I hope you’ll be able to join us for the next TUESDAY SALON, presented by the American Composers Forum. The music you’ll hear was hand picked by Zeitgeist from responses to a recent ACF Call for Scores, and features a wide range of new ideas by Minnesota new music creators. If you’re able, we’d love for you to join us next Tuesday to hear works by area composers, share ideas, and network with other composers and musicians in the metro.

TUESDAY SALON
Tuesday, February 21 * 7:30 p.m.
Zeitgeist Studio
275 East Fourth Street, Suite 100 in St. Paul
(across from the St. Paul Farmers’ Market.)
FREE

Featuring works by:
Arthur Campbell: Im Zeitgeist
Mike Croswell: Scattered
Todd Harper: The Girl Who Was Standing Still
Marc Jensen: Interpenetration & Non-Obstruction
Bill Kempe: Prelude
Paul Reiners: The Lost Son

In addition to these events being a wonderful chance for composers to share their work, it’s also an invaluable chance for discussion and interaction with a wide variety of new music creators, performers and attendees. Come with your ears and minds open and we’ll see you there!