tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post3346727147708751921..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Pop ConnectionsBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-84173361039500109352016-05-07T10:34:22.381-05:002016-05-07T10:34:22.381-05:00Jeph, I was reading some liner notes to a Steve Re...Jeph, I was reading some liner notes to a Steve Reich album recently and he was making some of the same points, that art music and popular music are reconnecting with one another after quite a hiatus. He is one of the people responsible, of course.<br /><br />Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-14285099214576413462016-05-06T13:10:27.524-05:002016-05-06T13:10:27.524-05:00Great post, love this topic. That article is a me...Great post, love this topic. That article is a mess. I appreciate that Goodall is pointing out that classical music need not seem so remote to the modern listener. Schubert would be a great point-of-entry for the inexperienced listener. But Goodall's examples seem simplified to the point of absurdity, and distorted to resonate with today's headlines. Was there such a controversy around Dvorak's New World? come on...he heard some folks song in pentatonic scales, and it inspired him. <br />That said, I think (the best) pop music has a great deal to teach art music composers about reconnecting with their audience, and providing some entertainment. Art music could afford to have a more inviting texture; ideas could develop more quickly and we could dispense with the more abstruse techniques which result in emotionally bereft music. And vice versa, art music has much to teach pop music about depth and durability. "Hello" doesn't even have a bridge, but imagine if it did have one, with a series of searching suspensions and resolutions like the Schubert song. That would be something. Jephnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-53908054035949650322016-05-05T18:37:14.480-05:002016-05-05T18:37:14.480-05:00Adele is quite a nice pop singer, no doubt, but co...Adele is quite a nice pop singer, no doubt, but compared to Schubert?<br /><br />Yes, there are a stunning number of remarkable songs by Schubert, starting from when he was seventeen.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-35555899637440430792016-05-05T15:38:46.135-05:002016-05-05T15:38:46.135-05:00I never much got the point of Mr Bean, ha, but thi...I never much got the point of Mr Bean, ha, but this has diverted me into listening to some Shostakovich again today. Last night I 'discovered' the soundtrack to a film by Pierre de Mahéas that sandwiches the symphonic version of the Andante of the String Quartet no 10 op 118 between iterations of Henry Mancini's <i>Vereda Tropical</i>. <br /><br />That <i>Hello</i> is from Adele's latest album? It sounds like how I remember songs sounding on the previous one, & I don't really see how it can be such a hit-- & I did (really!) listen many times to <i>21</i>. Once I've listened to all of Schubert's lieder (there are 18 CDs!!! of lieder not even counting the major cycles-- who knew? you did point this out in a post or series of them, ahem; life is too short...) perhaps I'll spend some more time with Adele.Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-14273120310732167972016-05-05T10:25:43.866-05:002016-05-05T10:25:43.866-05:00My pleasure! Thanks for mentioning the use of jazz...My pleasure! Thanks for mentioning the use of jazz by Shostakovich. Stravinsky did the same in his Ebony Concerto and I'm sure there are lots of other examples. In other words, this is very old news.<br /><br />You can say that Gershwin is a serious composer, but I think you would need to qualify that a lot.<br /><br />Here is the Mr. Bean theme and it sounds ever so like an Anglican hymn:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XsYnux-OSc<br /><br />NTTAWWTBryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-78091016066825885712016-05-05T10:04:37.522-05:002016-05-05T10:04:37.522-05:00Bryan, thanks for continuing my education and kee...Bryan, thanks for continuing my education and keeping watch over the information/propaganda stream in media content. The statements in the paragraph you quoted last started me thinking about "serious" composers and jazz elements. I found it interesting that a mere 10 years after the 1924 premiere of Rhapsody in Blue, Shostakovich's Jazz Suite #1 was premiered in a hall presumably a long way from New Orleans. Does this fact support the claims that the jazz features were "deeply threatening"? Not so much, I think.<br /><br />I also note that the Wikipedia commentary on R in B comments that the publication of the piece "established Gershwin's reputation as a serious composer". Quite a different spin from that in The Guardian. And a helpful glimpse of the journalist's agenda for her article.<br /><br />Delving a little deeper, I see that the article is an "as told to" piece. The ideas expressed are really those of Howard Goodall, a composer whose works include the themes for Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. Mr. Goodall was named a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2011. He published The Story of Music in 2014.Davidnoreply@blogger.com