Friday Miscellanea

Kicking off with a nice article about the history of the ukulele. Worth it just for this pretty good version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on solo uke:

George Harrison would sometimes travel with two ukuleles just in case, as he said, "someone else on the flight needed to borrow one."

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Now you might think that this Australian commentary on a BBC broadcast of feminist music is prejudicial. Or you might not. The piece itself sounds either like middle-period Stockhausen or outtakes from a Ligeti choral recording:

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Music is sexy! Well, sure, that's obvious. But here is an article in the Wall Street Journal explaining it to us: "Music Enhances Feelings of Attraction":

Music might just be the food of love, a study found. Feelings of interest and attraction among single men and women increased significantly if music was playing in the background at their first meeting compared with no music, according to a report in the current issue of Psychology of Music.

Of course, specific pieces of music might provoke specific types of reaction. The Rite of Spring? Now that's going to get your blood moving:

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Here are a couple of shots of the Beatles' rooftop concert in January 1969. The last time they performed in public. Well, sort of in public. There is a film of the performance, but I haven't seen these still shots before.

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Here is a cool blog post about Great Monotonous Songs. And, yes, they are. Music does not have to be bustling around busily to make an impact. In fact, some of the most intense musical expression involves a tight focus on a narrow range of pitches. Hence, "monotonous". Normally this is a negative, but in music, often not... One of my favorite examples and one that I have posted before, is the first movement of the String Quartet No. 15 by Shostakovich:

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From a Finnish media site, here is a lengthy interview with Simon Rattle about his new Sibelius recording project.

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Alex Ross has a pretty good essay on Henryk Górecki's Fourth Symphony in the New Yorker. He also comments on the incredible popularity of the Third Symphony, which gives us a nice envoi to today's post:

If you can't hear anything at the beginning, that's because you are listening to it on your laptop and the speakers don't reproduce bass very well! Yes, it is rumbling down pretty low for the first part.