SHE SHALL HAVE MUSIC 11 – The Great Escape

• Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
• She shall have music wherever she goes
• (17th century English nursery rhyme)

THE WOMAN IN RED
By Giovanni Boldini – http://www.wikiart.org/en/giovanni-boldini/the-woman-in-red, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38385080

This is a series of brief descriptions of piano compositions important historically, but I have also learned to play all of these works so they are important to me personally. All praise goes to my music teacher, a Brit named Doris Watts.

COMPOSITION: The Old Piano Roll Blues

COMPOSER: Cy Coben

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: A piano roll is a lengthy narrow sheet of paper with various perforations strategically placed so that when the roll is played on a mechanical device known as a player piano the piano automatically plays the piece the roll is designed to play. The pitches of the notes are generated by the placement of the perforations in the piano roll. This song, about piano rolls, was written about 1950 and was recorded by various people who turned it into a big hit. It was also part of the soundtrack of the 1951 Hollywood feature film ‘Rich, Young and Pretty’ starring Fernando Lamas, Danielle Darrieux and Wendell Corey.

FERNANDO LAMAS AND DARRIEUX
By Unknown author – http://cgi.ebay.com/Danielle-Darrieux-Fernando-Lemas-Rich-Young-Pretty-304L_W0QQitemZ200320514679QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea4087a77, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9651899

PERSONAL CONTEXT: Unlike the previous ten posts, this is not a classical work. I learned ‘The Old Piano Roll Blues’ when I was playing keyboards for a very amateur satirical / nostalgia music revue group alongside four singers / comedians playing clubs and events around southern Ontario for a few years in the 1990’s. For comic relief I played the sullen taciturn keyboard player as a contrast to the upbeat personas of the main singers (who were actually much more talented than I was).

This piece was my father’s signature tune. He was a self-taught jazz pianist who formed his own big band in the late 1930’s and toured the Great Lakes with it playing on the luxury crafts of the day. In the 1940’s he fronted his own jazz combo. During World War Two he formed an armed forces band entertaining Canadian troops overseas. After the war he had his own radio show back in Canada; he composed his own theme song for the show, a piece called ‘Perpetual Commotion’. In the 1950’s he played as a solo performer, at one point working up a comedy routine in which he imitated Liberace, complete with wig and candelabra (Liberace was in his prime at the time). My father was also an accomplished drummer, and accordian player.

I well remember my father playing this piece at the many late night parties at our house that took place as I was growing up. Soon after I completed my Assoc. Mus. (Paed.) degree, with years of classical training and performing behind me, I sat down beside my father at the keyboard one night and watched his big hands with intense scrutiny as they flashed across the keys forming perfectly executed complex chords and incredible runs, improvising effortlessly. His accuracy, energy and musical instincts were beyond my analysis. I had been told often that I was far superior to my father because I could read music and play classical music but that night I realized that I could never come close to doing what my father was doing instinctively right in front of me. My uncle Stirling, also an accomplished musician, once told me that when my father was a young man, and an even more spectacular player, music professors from the nearby university would show up at the local jazz clubs and sit and watch my father play and try and figure out how he did it.

DAVE BRUBECK (LEFT) AND PAUL DESMOND (RIGHT) IN 1954
By Carl Van Vechten – Van Vechten Collection at Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=674336

When The Beatles were ruling the world in 1964 I was playing four-part Bach fugues and I looked upon The Beatles as superficial amateurs playing non-classical music. But then as a teenager I chanced upon Dave Brubeck and was surprised, delighted and humbled at the innovation and complexity of his work and that led me to enthusiastically explore other non-classical music (e.g. rock, jazz, folk, world) and I have never looked back. I also began to teach myself non-classical works, including The Old Piano Roll Blues, some of Scott Joplin’s rags, and several works composed and recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. I publicly performed the quartet’s most famous work, ‘Take Five’, in 1966 as part of a student-organized concert on the S.S. Nevasa, a student ocean-going cruise ship just out of Morocco on its way to Cairo, Egypt.

I never knew my father. Growing up he and I never interacted, he never talked to me about music, or about life issues, practical or otherwise, about my life, or anything else. It didn’t help that I also spent several years as a young child in hospitals off and on from a variety of maladies and injuries. I grew up in a highly dysfunctional family and I was able to cope by distracting myself learning to play the pieces analysed in these posts. It was my Great Escape.

LIBERACE
By Allan warren – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17918523

PERFORMER: Wladziu Valentino Liberace (1919 – 1987)

THINGS TO NOTICE: This piece is very simple though Liberace plays it fast and adds embellishments. After a four bar introduction, the piece, in F Major, goes into the main theme (for four bars), then the secondary theme for four bars, then a repeat of the first part of the main theme but then it veers off into a new melody line for six bars, then it repeats the entire main theme again. That’s all there is to it.

HERE IS THE WORK ITSELF: Now see how much of the previous section you can remember – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC0vAKxRjG8&ab_channel=BiggestLiberaceFan

SCOTT JOPLIN IN 1903
By GuardianH – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124491373

Here are seven other compositions which I have played, works which I think are well worth hearing and studying:

1. TRAUMERAI (Dreams) – composed by Robert Schumann – performed here by Vladimir Horowitz – This is a favourite of the great Danish pianist Victor Borge. Though technically very easy to master, there is something about the melody which is captivating and melancholy yet somehow comforting. In this clip watch the audience close-ups and try to imagine what people are feeling and thinking. In this large concert hall in Moscow in 1986 the piece being played is short and simple yet one could here a pin drop. It is incredible. The Cold War was going strong, Ronald Reagan, who arguably started the U.S. down the road to authoritarianism, was the U.S. President, global nuclear war remained a real possibility, and these people are perhaps escaping into the music. The great Vladimir Horowitz himself still takes great care here playing this undemanding piece even though he is known for his formidable and dramatic technical abilities (e.g. The incredibly demanding Heroic Polonaise by Chopin addressed in Part 5 of this set of posts – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2023/07/14/she-shall-have-music-5-vive-la-revolution-hero%c8%89que/ ). This is a demonstration of how a particular uncomplicated combination of musical pitches can have an overwhelming effect on complicated thinking and feeling human beings. The composer of this piece, Robert Schumann, died in his forties. The story of his life, and that of his wife Clara Schumann, who was also a composer, adds another layer of poignancy to this composition. Here is Traumerai – sweet dreams – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU_ccvjxq6o&ab_channel=Baum

2. THE MAPLE LEAF RAG by Scott Joplin (1868 – 1917) – One of Joplin’s most popular works – here is a MIDI re-creation from an early piano roll recorded by Joplin himself – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAtL7n_-rc&ab_channel=TomJ

Here is a great version of this work from Tuba Skinny – formed and led by Shaye Cohn (second from the left, on cornet – the granddaughter of jazz saxophonist Al Cohn) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYJhgz4L3UU&ab_channel=RaoulDuke504

The Maple Leaf Rag was originally written in 2 / 4 time but a session pianist named Johnny Guarnieri plays it here, and he has brilliantly transformed it into the unusual time signature of 5 / 4. Guarnieri has played on over 6000 recordings and composed over 3500 pieces of music – you can ignore the lengthy introduction here by the great New Orleans jazz trumpeter Al Hirt – the music starts at the 1 minute 40 second mark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHXxgC_ddbw&ab_channel=unigonfilms

3. THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS by J.S. Bach – IMHO this is Bach’s greatest work. I can only play a few of the easier variations:

VARIATION 1 – P. Barton

VARIATION 4 – Glenn Gould

VARIATION 6 – Irina Lankova – short but quite a beautiful variation

VARIATION 18 – Colin Booth – with animation showing the three intertwined melodies

VARIATION 22 – Dan Tepfer – RIGHT SIDE UP THEN CHROMATICALLY INVERTED

4. SONATA NO. 9, OPUS 14 NO. 1 – composed by Beethoven, performed by Daniel Barenboim – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cIVrlAl9FI&ab_channel=EuroArtsChannel

5. Frederic Chopin – THE MILITAIRE POLONAISE OPUS 40 NO. 1 IN A MAJOR – a dynamic, aggressive work, with score here, performed by Maurizio Pollini – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbnunexhlXM&ab_channel=RomanticandModernMusicChannel

6. SONATA NO. 8, OPUS 13, IN C MINOR aka THE PATHETIQUE – composed by Beethoven, performed by Evgeny Kissin – this was the longest of the works I played during the final performance examination when I completed my Assoc. Mus. (Paed.) degree – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEyy7EfQfUQ&ab_channel=Pickacherry

7. RHAPSODY IN BLUE – by George Gershwin – performed here by the formidable Yuja Wang and the Camerata Salzburg. This work was too difficult for me to play but I did learn Herman Wasserman’s modified arrangement of the work. Here is Gershwin’s famous expanded symphonic orchestration of Rhapsody in Blue arranged in 1942 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce3OERuCY0E&ab_channel=PeterChen2.0

– Rhapsody in Blue began life as a simple composition for two pianos but Gershwin then went on to arrange the work for small orchestra in time for its 1924 premier, doubling its length in the process. Here is that original shorter version for two pianos – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm4WCc5fypE&ab_channel=Ryan%26RyanPianoDuo

– Rhapsody in Blue originally premiered in 1924 by Paul Whiteman’s small twenty-three member Orchestra with George Gershwin himself at the piano. In the premier of this version of the piece Gershwin even did some improvising on the spot here and there. Igor Stravinsky, Leopold Stokowski, Fritz Kreisler, John Philip Sousa and legendary stride pianist Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith were all in attendance at the premier. Here is a recording of a performance of that original version which is quite different from the more famous 1942 symphonic arrangement – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko5yfb2xtmU&ab_channel=DanielVnukowski

SHE SHALL HAVE MUSIC 10 – Mysterious Love

• Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
• She shall have music wherever she goes
• (17th century English nursery rhyme)

THERESE MALFATTI
By Unknown Painter – Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Ley, Band III, Nr. 521, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4576224

This is a series of brief descriptions of classical piano compositions important historically, but I have also learned to play all of these works so they are important to me personally. All praise goes to my music teacher, a Brit named Doris Watts.

COMPOSITION: Fur Elise

COMPOSER: Ludwig van Beethoven

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: The version of this piece that is well-known was never published by Beethoven in his lifetime because he thought it wasn’t good enough to put out there and it was only discovered by Ludwig Nohl in 1867, forty years after Beethoven died. Beethoven modified the piece in 1822, however, coming up with what I think is a better work but it has remained obscure, known only to musicologists. The original version unearthed by Nohl has become one of Beethoven’s most popular compositions, and it comes with a mystery. Who is Elise?

It has been suggested that Elise was child prodigy Elise Barensfeld but the evidence is thin. Others have suggested it was the teenage soprano Elisabeth Röckel. The most convincing argument, however, is that Elise was Therese Malfatti, a friend of Beethoven’s, and it is reported that Beethoven asked her to marry him but she turned him down. Musicologist Dr. Robert Greenberg suggests that Beethoven’s handwriting was notoriously difficult to read. When Nohl found the original score in 1867 with the dedication at the top, that dedication might easily have read Fur Therese but when Nohl copied it he misread it as Fur Elise and Beethoven was long dead so Nohl couldn’t ask him about it.

PERSONAL CONTEXT: This was a personal favourite of my sister. She was a runaway many years ago, she no longer lives in Canada, and we have been out of touch for decades now. Whenever I play this, I play it for her.

PERFORMER: Lang Lang

THINGS TO NOTICE: This is quite a simple work technically so interpretation is important. Section one starts at pp, ‘pianissimo’ (very soft), in A Minor with frequent crescendos (getting louder) and diminuendos (getting softer) and subtle changes in tempo. Section two brightens up somewhat optimistically, written in C Major now, as it looks like Malfatti might accept Beethoven’s proposal. But after just sixteen bars it sinks back down into a sombre A Minor key again repeating the theme from the first section for a bit. It then slides into a more urgent and louder section with repeated notes and chords in the left hand culminating in repeated triplets in arpeggio form collapsing into a chromatic run, played pp (very soft) before slipping once again into the opening minor key theme at last reaching morendo (dying away) and ending with a pair of two sad simple two-note form chords as Therese Malfatti turns poor Beethoven down.

HERE IS THE PIECE ITSELF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s71I_EWJk7I&ab_channel=Steinway%26Sons

IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE, PLAY ON

Fur Elise is a love song. Remember, love songs can be about being in a loving relationship, or also about being abandoned by the person you love. There are so many songs about love relationships however we do have to realize that some songs that are seen as love songs are really songs about lust. There are also songs about domination which disguise themselves as love songs but are really power abuse songs. There are songs, too, that seem to be superficially all right but they reflect a world in which the female is expected to express her love by being a mother to a man’s child, or being a stay-at-home spouse while it’s the male who is expected to be the breadwinner, or by bringing a husband his slippers and beer while no one does the same for her. There are also songs about a man loving a woman BECAUSE the woman is cute, highly emotional, fragile, scatterbrained or desperately in need of protection and guidance. Finally, remember that a teenage love song may be legitimately about real love and therefore mutual respect but a teenager can’t be expected to be capable of a deep and complex emotional relationship. Finally, how many love songs have been written about same sex relationships, or about trans individuals? Not many.

There are clips below of love songs by Beyoncé, Queen, Taylor Swift etc. but first an example from a singer I have never liked. This is, however, one of the best performed, dynamic, carefully crafted videos I have come across and it still stands up even though it was made 46 years ago. The two main singers are Meat Loaf (who died last year) and his real life wife Carmen. This is several songs in one, the singers are acting as well as singing, it is both serious and amusing, and the high energy never lets up – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11MzbEcHlw&ab_channel=MeatLoafVEVO

REAL LOVE

When J.S. Bach was away, in 1720, he returned home to find that his wife, Maria Barbara, had died suddenly and at a very young age. There is evidence to suggest that he composed his Violin Partita No. 2 in her memory. Frederic Chopin composed his famous RAINDROP PRELUDE in 1838 one lonely night when he was convinced that his lover George Sand had perished during a terrible destructive thunderstorm – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2d2spnXyLA&ab_channel=Steinway%26Sons

Other love songs people wrote about real people:

1. Roy Orbison – CLAUDETTE about Orbison’s wife Claudette Orbison (who died young in a traffic accident) – in this clip see if you can find Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello in the backup band – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww55_HPB1io&ab_channel=RoyOrbisonVEVO
2. Pink – So What – this was a song about her separation from her husband Carey Hart but they later reconciled and remain married presently, with two children – Hart appears in the video for ‘So What’.
3. Johnny Cash – I Walk the Line about his first wife Vivian
4. The Rolling Stones – they recorded two songs, ‘Wild Horses’ and ‘Angie’, both about Mick Jagger’s former girlfriend Marianne Faithfull
5. Paul McCartney – The Lovely Linda about McCartney’s wife Linda McCartney
6. John Lennon – Oh Yoko about Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono
7. George Harrison – Something about Harrison’s wife Patti Boyd
8. Eric Clapton – Layla (co-written with Jim Gordon) about that same Patti Boyd who at the time was still the wife of Beatle George Harrison – A very strong case can be made that Rita Coolidge was an uncredited co-composer of this song.

FICTIONAL LOVE

Love songs from the 1950’s about fictional women: Long Tall Sally (by Little Richard Penniman, Robert Blackwell and Enotris Johnson), Dizzy Miss Lizzy (by Larry Williams), Bony Moronie (by Larry Williams), Short Fat Fannie (by Larry Williams), Lawdy Miss Clawdy (by Lloyd Price), Nadine (by Chuck Berry), Maybelline (by Chuck Berry), Lucille (by Little Richard Penniman and Albert Collins), Donna Donna (by Felice Bryant and Boudleaux Bryant) and recorded by the Everly Brothers, Good Golly Miss Molly (by John Marascalco and Robert Blackwell) and two songs recorded by Elvis Presley: Judy (by Teddy Redell) and Sylvia (by Geoff Stephens and Les Reed). Then there are even older songs, e.g. Ida Red (traditional), and Barbara Allen (traditional) whose origin goes back to 1666.

MORE RECENT LOVE SONGS

1. Beyoncé – an amazing live performance of COUNTDOWN (composed by 9 people) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX3xv7wk9d4&ab_channel=UfukKaya
2. Ray Charles – HALLELUJAH I LOVE HER SO
3. GOD ONLY KNOWS (by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher) – this was a big hit for The Beach Boys and this video of the song features a long list of famous contributors (Dave Grohl, Kylie Minogue, Chris Martin, One Direction and 24 others) including, at the 57 second mark and at the very end Brian Wilson, leader of The Beach Boys – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLTe8h0-jo&ab_channel=BBCMusic
4. INXS – NEVER TEAR US APART (by Andrew Farris and Michael Hutchence)
5. Queen – YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND – a two minute clip from a very early concert of a song by John Deacon, the band’s bassist – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5HzRVp4wWQ&ab_channel=TobiasLytjohan
6. Harry Nilsson has written and recorded many masterful love songs delivered with his formidable voice, e.g. All I Think About Is You, Love Is The Answer, Joy, and his big hit Without You which shows off his powerful voice. Here is one of his less serious love songs, one that got him into a lot of trouble -YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART – https://www.youtube.com/watch?
7. Adele – CRAZY FOR YOU (by Adele Adkins)
8. Leon Russell – SONG FOR YOU (by Leon Russell) – this has an excellent but very subtle brass arrangement behind Russell’s wonderful low key piano work – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvazuyF6eXw&ab_channel=jmms429
9. Billie Eilish – I LOVE YOU (by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell) in a rather unusual performance – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhmGwTDpPf0&ab_channel=BillieEilishVEVO
10. The Kinks’ most famous love song is their controversial hit LOLA (by Ray Davies) – in this clip notice the keyboardist John Gosling. He died a few weeks ago (Aug. 4, 2023). He was 75. Here is the track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP0X0CRMZLU&ab_channel=thevisitor
11. Leonard Cohen – SUZANNE (by Leonard Cohen)
12. Taylor Swift – OUR SONG (by Taylor Swift) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AteLrmgTBFo&ab_channel=TaylorSwiftWorld
13. The Beatles recorded songs about teenage love in their early days (e.g. ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’) but got more sophisticated as the years went by (e.g. ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘When I’m 64’) as well as these songs: Michelle, I Need You, Girl, Love Me Do, Polythene Pam, I Wanna Be Your Man, A Hard Day’s Night, And I Love Her, Another Girl, Drive My Car, Got to Get You Into My Life, She’s Leaving Home (about a teenage runaway), Lovely Rita, Honey Pie (about a movie queen), Getting Better (about a reformed domestic abuser), Don’t Pass Me By and others. Here’s one called OB-LA-DI, OB-LA-DA – “Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face” (by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Paqe2-BCYM&ab_channel=elperrobeatle
14. Harry Styles – SWEET CREATURE (by Harry Styles and Kid Harpoon)
15. Over 61 years The Rolling Stones have recorded a lot of songs about women and girls, for example: Tie You Up, Backstreet Girl (about prostitution), Brown Sugar (a racist song), Bitch, Hey Negrita, Some Girls (another racist song), Under My Thumb, Stupid Girl, The Spider and the Fly, Play With Fire, Parachute Woman (Land On Me Tonight) and Stray Cat Blues (about sex with an underage girl) but they are all about lust and control. The only song (besides ‘Angie’ and ‘Wild Horses’ mentioned above) about real love I can find is FACTORY GIRL (by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hzlCHl7PWc&ab_channel=TheRollingStones-Topic
16. Gordon Lightfoot has written about many things, including love: Did She Mention My Name, Cotton Jenny, Rosanna, The Last Time I Saw Her, Approaching Lavender, Mother of a Miner’s Child, Dream Street Rose and others.
17. Procol Harum – TOUJOURS L’AMOUR’ – “and blow out my brains” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke9nD8T9sQU&ab_channel=ProcolHarum-Topic
18. Sinead O’Connor – ‘NOTHING COMPARES 2 U’ – her version intelligently uses melancholy semitones instead of comfortable whole tones, unexpectedly blends major and minor scales to create atmosphere, and uses sophisticated chord progressions, besides demonstrating the incredible power of her voice – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EF60neguk&ab_channel=SineadOConnorVEVO
19. Two highly unusual love songs by Randy Newman – YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR HAT ON – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C99ZPoKkGmg&ab_channel=RandyNewman-Topic – and A WEDDING IN CHEROKEE COUNTY – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbtzAaVT3M&ab_channel=RandyNewman-Topic

OLD SCHOOL

There are also dozens of old jazz standards and show tunes which are love songs covered by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and others, for example: Unforgettable, Embraceable You, My Gal Sal, I Only Have Eyes For You, She’s Funny That Way, That Old Black Magic, You Do Something To Me, I Get a Kick Out of You, Like Someone in Love and so many others.

THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME

Then there are some love songs about same sex relationships:

1. MAD ABOUT THE BOY (by Noel Coward) performed here by Adam Lambert and two highly skilled male dancers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrat9qskTYU&ab_channel=BBCStrictlyComeDancing
2. ALABAMA SONG (by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill) – recorded by Lotte Lenya, The Doors and David Bowie among others
3. DAS LILA LIED (The Lavendar Song) (by Kurt Schwabach and Mischa Spoliansky) – written in 1920
4. Little Richard – TUTTI FRUTTI (by Little Richard Penniman and Dorothy LaBostrie) – the original lyrics were too graphic for Richard’s record company so he had to tone them down.

Some songs have lyrics about love which could apply to both a heterosexual and homosexual relationship (e.g. My Funny Valentine, Lush Life, Secret Love)

Finally, songs about trans relationships, or trans people in general, are not very common. One example is TRUE TRANS SOUL REBEL by Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas James Gabel), lead singer, songwriter and guitarist with the band Against Me! from their album ‘Transgender Dysphoria Blues’. The song is about being alone on the streets with no one to love them.

There have also been hate songs (e.g. Eminem – Kill You) but they will have to wait for another day.

SHE SHALL HAVE MUSIC 9 – A Gift From Sergei

• Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
• She shall have music wherever she goes
• (17th century English nursery rhyme)

SERGEI RACHMANINOFF WITH PIANO SCORE
By Digitaly restored by Etincelles – Own work, uncompressed TIFF version can be found here, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8729964

This is a series of descriptions of classical piano compositions important historically, but I have also learned to play these works myself so they are important to me personally. All praise goes to my music teacher, a Brit named Doris Watts.

COMPOSITION: Prelude Opus 23 No. 5 in G Minor

COMPOSER: Sergei Rachmaninoff

Here is the great Russian concert pianist Emil Gilels playing this Rachmaninoff Prelude on the battlefield entertaining Russian soldiers during World War Two – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HJsb6AXXM4&ab_channel=ClassicalPianoRarities%F0%9F%8E%B9

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Composed in 1901, Rachmaninoff premiered the work himself in Moscow in 1903, and of the ten preludes in the Opus 23 set this is the one performed the most. The Russians sent Emil Gilels to the front to play classical music (including this work) in support of the Russian military forces fighting on the battlefield. The Americans, when they finally decided to enter the war, sent Bob Hope to support their troops.

PERSONAL CONTEXT: Years ago I played trombone and euphonium in the Chatham Concert Band. We put on weekly free summer concerts, at Christmas we broke up into brass quartets and performed Christmas carols throughout hospitals and retirement homes, and I was also in two of their sub-units – a Stage Band playing jazz, and a Dixieland Band. That’s what we do in this small town. On one occasion as a piano soloist I performed this Rachmaninoff Prelude backed by the Chatham Concert Band. That was a few years ago, in 1982.

PERFORMER: Yuja Wang. Her technique is formidable, but she also plays with intelligence and joy. Unfortunately this work is less than four minutes long so you don’t really get a chance to hear what she can do.

YUJA WANG
By Lonelyfox – A friend of mine took this photo for me, with my camera phone.Previously published: Posted on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lonelyfox/6999514331/ (CC-Attribution), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18771282

THINGS TO NOTICE: The opening section is quite forceful and to be played ‘Alla marcia’ (like a march), with power and confidence, and a dynamic range going from pp, i.e. ‘pianissimo’ (very soft) to ff, i.e. ‘fortissimo’ (very loud). There are lots of ‘crescendos’ (gradually louder) and diminuendos (gradually softer), stressed notes and staccato notes, and all in common (4 / 4 ) time with one unexpected measure in 2 / 4 time just to make things interesting. The first section winds down quietly and we’re into the haunting, smooth, quieter second section.

The second section begins ‘pianissimo’ (very soft) and we never get more than mf, i.e. ‘mezzo forte’ (medium loud). The left hand is all wonderful sweeping arpeggios, and in the last two measures ‘diminuendo e ritard’ (gradually slowing down) to a very soothing ppp, i.e. ‘pianississimo’ (extremely soft). Then we charge into the final section in the same style and form as the opening section, to be played ‘poco s poco accelerando e cresc al Tempo 1’ (bit by bit increasing speed and volume up to the eighth bar. Then we continue loudly and forcefully again with a couple of ff’s, i.e. ‘fortissimo’s’ (very loud) eventually settling down, with the final few bars played pp, i.e. ‘pianissimo’ (very soft) and ‘leggiero’ (lightly, delicately). The entire sad piece is in a minor key full of both subtlety and high drama.

HERE IS THE WORK ITSELF: Now see how much of the previous section you can remember – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpbS3RXcgp8&ab_channel=SoundProfessionalBoston

ANOTHER VERSION: Here is the work played by the great Russian concert pianist Boris Berezovsky presented with the score in case you want to follow along – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ&ab_channel=RomanticandModernMusicChannel

ELECTRIFYING CONDUCTORS

Rachmaninoff was a great composer, and he was also a great pianist, and conductor. A conductor does a lot more than keep everybody on the same beat. A conductor also:

1. knows every individual part played by each of a multitude of different instruments
2. often cues sections and soloists on their entrances
3. comes up with the intricacies of interpretation of a work
4. sets the tempo, and if she’s 10% too fast it’s hell for the musicians, and if 10% too slow it’s hell for the audience
5. deals with a wide range of individual temperaments and perspectives and therefore must be an expert psychologist and leader in order to keep a musical team together
6. makes repertoire decisions and takes care of other practical matters
7. must be good at public relations
8. should have a good grounding in musical history and musical theory

There have been many noteworthy conductors across the history of classical music. The greatest, IMHO, is Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990) who was also a great composer, pianist, educator, author and humanitarian. He sometimes conducted while performing at the piano. He was the first to explain classical music to a mass television audience, and he knew and loved rock and jazz as well as classical music. Bernstein also protested against the Vietnam War, supported civil rights for African-Americans, advocated for nuclear disarmament and raised money for AIDS research.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN
By Jack Mitchell, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15047519

Some conductors were highly proficient composers as well, for example: Hector Berlioz, Aaron Copland, Edward Elgar, Victor Herbert, Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky and Richard Wagner – Here is Copland’s Fanfare For The Common Man conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Copland himself can be seen listening at the 33 second mark) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK1N46dRPVg&ab_channel=JohnRandolph .

OTHER FAMOUS CLASSICAL CONDUCTORS – Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Thomas Beecham, Hans Von Bulow, Arthur Fiedler, Paul Hindemith, Herbert Von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Eugene Ormandy, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn (who was also an excellent jazz pianist), Anton Rubinstein, Georg Solti, Leopold Stokowski, George Szell and Arturo Toscanini.

CHRISTOPHER TIN conducting The Welsh National Opera Orchestra, The Celebration Chorus and the Kwa-Zulu-Natal Youth Chorus. The music is also composed and arranged by Christopher Tin. The words are The Lord’s Prayer (Baba Yetu) in Swahili – the soloists are Joel Virgel and Nominjin – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxhle6WM8yo&ab_channel=ChristopherTin

NON-CLASSICAL CONDUCTORS – Burt Bacharach, Elmer Bernstein, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Morton Gould, Ted Heath, Bernard Hermann, Jools Holland, Quincy Jones, Bert Kaempfert, Andre Kostelanetz, James Last, Humphrey Lyttelton, Henry Mancini, Hugo Montenegro, Alfred Newman, Emil Newman, Lionel Newman, Howard Shore, John Philip Sousa, Christopher Tin, Dimitri Tiomkin, Paul Whiteman, Hans Zimmer and Frank Zappa. Here is music from the film ‘Gladiator’ conducted and composed by Hans Zimmer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euii8q9zeFo&ab_channel=GavinGreenaway-Topic .

JAZZ CONDUCTORS – Count Basie, Les Brown, Cab Calloway, Bob Crosby, Johnny Dankworth, Jimmy Dorsey and his brother Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Fletcher Henderson, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Harry James, Quincy Jones, Stan Kenton, Kay Kyser, Guy Lombardo, Jimmie Lunceford, Fate Marable, Glenn Miller, King Oliver, Doc Severinsen, Artie Shaw, Jack Teagarden, Clark Terry and Chick Webb.

Here is JOOLS HOLLAND conducting his highly-disciplined Rhythm and Blues Orchestra doing ‘Together We Are Strong’ with vocalists Sam Brown and Sam Moore. The orchestra features the great Gilson Lavis on drums, former drummer with Squeeze, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis (Lavis also happens to be a professional portrait artist). Sam Brown, known for her powerful voice, is the daughter of early British rave up rock and roller Joe Brown, and professional singer Victoria Brown. Sam Moore, decades ago, had a string of hits, including ‘Soul Man’, as part of the high energy soul duo Sam and Dave – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JgJGDl3V7U&ab_channel=LWJHFan .

FEMALE CONDUCTORS – Conducting has been a predominantly male domain but here is Susanna Mälkki conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing ‘Mars: Bringer of War’ by Gustav Holst (in 5 / 4 time) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXOanvv4plU&ab_channel=BBC

Here is information about 94 female conductors – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_classical_conductors

SHE SHALL HAVE MUSIC 8 – What a Little Moonlight Can Do

• Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
• She shall have music wherever she goes
• (17th century English nursery rhyme)

This is a series of brief descriptions of classical piano compositions important historically, but I have also learned to play all of these works so they are important to me personally. All praise goes to my music teacher, a Brit named Doris Watts.

FROM ‘A TRIP TO THE MOON’ (1902), A FILM BY GEORGES MÉ
LIÈS
By Georges Méliès – http://cinespect.com/2011/10/saving-projecting-and-celebrating-cinema-at-moma/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27465502

COMPOSITION: Clair de Lune

COMPOSER: Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: In 1890 Debussy composed the Suite Bergamasque consisting of four movements. However, not thinking the suite was worth publishing he set the work aside. Finally, in 1905, he did publish the work, and the third movement in the set, Clair de Lune, became one of his most popular compositions. The title of this work is taken from the poem ‘Clair de Lune’ by Paul Verlaine which references bergamasks in the opening stanza.

PERFORMER: Claude Debussy. This is an extraordinary recording of Debussy (who was born 161 years ago) playing his own composition at the age of fifty-one, five years before his death. Debussy was the first of the impressionist composers writing music reminiscent of the impressionistic style of painting. His work is an intentional rebuff to the sturm und drang, the drama and explosiveness, of composers such as Richard Wagner.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY 1884
By Marcel Baschet – Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121859639

THINGS TO NOTICE: Written in 9 / 8 time, the work is divided into six sections, the first one marked ‘Andante très expressif’ (a moderately slow tempo played with great expression), and the entire section is played pp, i.e. ‘pianissimo’ (very soft). Section two is marked ‘Tempo rubato’ (played with great rhythmic freedom), also played pianissimo, continuing the dreamy feeling associated with soft moonlight streaming down late at night. The section ends with four sets of two-handed broken chords.

Section three, ‘Un poco mosso’ (a little more animated) but still soft, the melody is more urgent now and rises to a high D Flat as we go into the fourth section. Until now the work has been in D Flat Major (five flats) but now we are in E Major (four sharps) and we ascend to a high A (requiring five leger lines above the treble staff to write the note) and both hands are playing now on the upper half of the keyboard so both sets of notes are written on treble staffs. This short section ends with a descending run which sounds difficult to play but isn’t.

Into the fifth section, marked ‘Calmato’ (calm) we return to D Flat Major and come back down to Earth, with a lot of rippling perfect fifths and fourths in the bass. Finally, into the sixth section, this one starting with a ppp marking, ‘pianississimo’ (extremely softly). Except for a brief foray into ‘soft’ in the slightly excitable fourth section, this entire composition is to be played either pp (very softly) or ppp (extremely softly), like moonlight. In this final section we return to the original pace and melody but the melodic line is played an octave higher. At the very end we have ‘morendo jusqu à la fin’ (a gradual softening of tone and slowing of movement right to the end) ending with great peace and satisfaction on a two-handed set of D Flat four note form broken chords.

HERE IS THE WORK ITSELF: Now see how much of the previous section you can remember – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yri2JNhyG4k&ab_channel=Adagietto .

ANOTHER VERSION: When Walt Disney’s amazing ground-breaking 1940 animated film ‘Fantasia’ was created it was to include a section accompanied by an orchestral arrangement of Clair de Lune, but that section was edited out before the final cut. Here it is, restored, starting at the 1 minute 33 second mark, conducted by Leopold Stokowski – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRIm48bNTYc&ab_channel=JohnMello .

AMY WINEHOUSE 2007
By Rama – cropped version from, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9542840

LUNACY

The moon is another entire world which we can see clearly every night, so close yet so far. It was a momentous occasion, marred by politics (thanks to President Kennedy), when humans first stepped out upon the moon’s surface, and now a new moon mission is in preparation all these years later. The moon has been a source of wonder throughout many cultures over the centuries, and we talk about moonbeams, moonlight and moonlighting, moonshine, moonstones, lunatics and lunacy. Monday is the moon’s day, there is the splitting of the Moon in Islamic culture, and also the Man in the Moon. Here is a sampling of musical compositions, in a wide range of styles, inspired by the moon:

THE COVER OF PINK FLOYD’S ‘DARK SIDE OF THE MOON’
By Pink Floyd / Reproduction : Kilyann Le Hen – cover, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=116527150

1. Laurel and Hardy – SHINE ON HARVEST MOON – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIw14TwJvZc&ab_channel=LMUK
2. R.E.M. – MAN ON THE MOON
3. Pink Floyd (with the late Richard Wright on keyboards) – BRAIN DAMAGE / ECLIPSE from ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ – “There’s someone in my head but it’s not me” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRfwJQK7leQ&ab_channel=HDPinkFloyd
4. Fleetwood Mac – SISTERS OF THE MOON
5. Bruno Mars – TALKING TO THE MOON – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgpdUCi1AIQ&ab_channel=ClubedoAmor
6. The Rolling Stones – MOONLIGHT MILE and THE MOON IS UP
7. The Waterboys (Scottish-Irish folk rock band) – THE WHOLE OF THE MOON
8. Echo and the Bunnymen (a Liverpool rock band formed in 1978) – THE KILLING MOON
9. Les Paul and Mary Ford – HOW HIGH THE MOON – Les Paul invented the modern electric guitar and here, from the early 1950’s, he shows off his virtuosity while Mary Ford does the singing, as they both play their guitars – the song takes off at the 42 second mark – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t8l1BGRSKw&ab_channel=LesPaulOfficial
10. Neil Young – HARVEST MOON
11. Harry Nilsson and his incredible voice – THE MOONBEAM SONG – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btyelrNYCtU&ab_channel=musicluver1958
12. Creedence Clearwater Revival – BAD MOON RISING
13. Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens – MOONSHADOW
14. The Beatles – MR. MOONLIGHT
15. Billie Holiday – WHAT A LITTLE MOONLIGHT CAN DO – Recorded in 1935 by Billie Holiday with The Teddy Wilson Orchestra, this is perhaps the best track on this list – the great jazz vocalist Billie Holiday does the singing on this three minute upbeat track but we also have excellent solos from jazz legends Benny Goodman (clarinet), Ben Webster (saxophone) and Roy Eldridge (trumpet). Cozy Cole is on drums. Throughout is some incredibly intricate elegant piano playing from Teddy Wilson – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldwDvw99HHs&ab_channel=HenriErwig
16. Paul Simon – SONG ABOUT THE MOON
17. Savage Garden (an Australian pop rock duo) – “All her friends they’ve been tried for treason” – TO THE MOON AND BACK
18. David Bowie – MOONAGE DAYDREAM
19. MOON RIVER (by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, in 1961) has been covered by Amy Winehouse, Audrey Hepburn, Morrisey, Andy Williams, Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart and R.E.M., among many others, including this from The Killers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbA__-u7KE0&ab_channel=HenricBerglund
20. Jonathan King – EVERYONE’S GONE TO THE MOON
21. The Police – WALKING ON THE MOON – note the incredibly energetic Stewart Copeland on drums – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17CKq6rTMvo&ab_channel=ThePoliceVEVO
22. Frank Sinatra – FLY ME TO THE MOON
23. BLUE MOON (by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, in 1934) has been covered by Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, Bob Dylan, Mel Tormé, Yvonne de Carlo, The Platters, Dean Martin, the Supremes, Cyndi Lauper and The Cowboy Junkies, among many others, including this from The Marcels – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoi3TH59ZEs&ab_channel=MANNYMORA