More up to speed, perhaps.

One of the biggest issues of this ossified study of hundred-some year old music is that our university students are being taught that Beethoven, for instance, is forever… or at least his music is.  We play them wonderful excerpts recorded on Steinway 9-footers of his Sonatae, and it never occurs to the young initiates that this music invites a more curatorial perspective.  Jan Swafford at Slate has a wonderful article with sound examples of the difference a period instrument can make.  After all, Beethoven had only 5 and a half octaves, and timbres that varied widely!  No wonder he treated each hand as a different instrument — the timbral differences in the high and low ranges made them sound quite constrasting indeed.

I wonder what tunes TC would write. Probably the sequel to "I'm On A Boat," titled "I'm On a Plane."

A little while back, Public Radio did an excellent series of programs on American Music, called “American Mavericks.” Fortunately for us, you can read and listen to the great stuff online, even if you missed the radio broadcast (as many of you probably did).

Ironically enough, many of these programs were used in my American Music History class. Now I’m actually doing the readings…

I’ve been music directing a co-ed all-genre a cappella group called Rather Be Giraffes at Brandeis University for almost four years now, as well as years and years of orchestra and solo work on piano and double bass. I’ll be providing some of my hard-fought experience to this great movement once I figger out the widgets and stuff. It’ll be epic.

But of course, before I start contributing real information, here’s the Swingle Singers raising the bar for the rest of the world.

I’m talking, of course, about The Ren & Stimpy Show, everyone’s favorite adult-oriented animated series for kids. The concepts in this 1990s cartoon were so crude and vile that it’s a wonder that it ever got the OK from Nickelodeon to air. But creator John Kricfalusi (“John K.” as credited on the show) wasn’t an idiot – in fact, he was far from it. Maybe insane genius is more appropriate. He seems to have found a unique way to get kids to appreciate music, and that was good news for the music community. Behind all the farting, hair licking, and whizzing on electric fences, Ren & Stimpy offered up a soundtrack for the ages (comprised of both well-known existing works and original compositions). The juxtaposition of the animated debauchery with, say, “The Toy Trumpet” is so jarring and yet so unbelievably appropriate that you have no choice but to appreciate the creative executions that the series put forth.

Mixing classical music with cartoons wasn’t a new concept when R&S came out, of course. In 1940, Fantasia was released by Walt Disney, which was undoubtedly a cinematic masterpiece in its efforts to bring life to works of Bach, Stravinsky, Schubert, and a host of other composers of note. Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies followed suit, with a more lighthearted approach, by introducing familiar characters and intertwining complex musical scores to help facilitate the storylines. These animated works all took music and matched it to images you’d “expect” to see. But Ren & Stimpy completely redefined this practice. It turns every perception you’ve ever had about classical music on its head.

You probably won't be learning this in music class.

The truth is, musical perceptions are highly contextual. If nothing else, Ren & Stimpy proves this by mixing its accompaniment with “inappropriate” storylines. Logic tells us that, for example, Tchaikovsky and the concept of marrying a chicken are two entities that wouldn’t blend well. Certainly, Tchaikovsky is too pure, too deeply rooted in music history to be associated with such child’s play! And yet, John K. was able to understand that the music can take on any meaning it desires. Did he ruin Tchaikovsky by associating the composer with this nonsense? Not at all, I would argue. Rather, he highlights the versatility that such an artist is able provide in his music.

Kids probably won’t appreciate the artistic genius behind these creative decisions, but that does not mean that the series is of no value to the musical enrichment of children. Grade schoolers by nature have low attention spans; we cannot expect them to sit through a three-hour concert and appreciate the music quietly and respectfully. But we can expect that they will take the music in stride when it is married to silly cartoons. So maybe parents should re-consider what kind of programming is valuable to children and what kind is harmful. The Ren & Stimpy Show may have helped kids build an appreciation for music without them realizing it. Then, when little Billy enters middle school and Teacher places a clarinet in his hands, he knows what it’s all about. And what it’s capable of. And what he’s capable of.

And that’s pretty awesome.

In other news, I’m happy to be on board to contribute to SmarterMusic! Hooray music!

Among the violinists was the composer Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859), who was astounded by Beethoven’s conducting style, noting how he used “all manner of singular bodily movements. As a sforzando occurred, he tore his arms, previously crossed upon his breast, with great vehemence asunder. At piano he crouched down lower and lower to show the degree of softness. If a crescendo entered he gradually rose again and at a forte jumped into the air.”

…From the website of the Northwest Sinfonietta.  I can only imagine Beethoven jumping up and down, as enthusiastic as he could be — but also as unpracticed and unstudied as an overenthusiastic college freshman (or perhaps a certain wascally wabbit? Bonus points: What is the song played by Bugs on the Sousaphone?  Answer here).  Beethoven was no “conductor” in the overly-qualified sense we are familiar with today, but he was a consummate musician.  If the orchestras of the early 1800s are anything like those of today, I imagine that his prestige as preeminent composer of the half-century made the orchestra at this particular charity concert as attentive as could be.  And the audience surely was drawn tremendously into the performance.

For more information on Symphony No.7, by the way, check out this NPR story.

Good old Ludwig van

Beethoven‘s Third Symphony, “Eroica” has quite the interesting story behind it, and is often cited as a landmark composition which separated the Classical era to the Romantic.  It expanded tremendously on the symphonic form, and was many times longer than a comparable symphony by Mozart or Haydn.  The excellent San Francisco Symphony — at Keeping Score — has a sensational Flash-based analysis of the history of the work, as well as a superb multimedia score-reading section.  Additionally, composer W. A. DeWitt of Colorado has put together a thorough measure-by-measure analysis at his dedicated website.  It’s a tad long, but very thorough, and the piano reduction is written in!  Highly recommended, most certainly!

Meantime, Chip is downstairs playing some piano –and doing pretty ridiculously well.  He’s a better sight-reader than I am I think, blast him.

It’s roughly in an embellished ternary form with a coda, resembling AABCAD: C is a romping and dramatic series of variations of previous themes in various keys, and D is a rapid and virtuosic coda, showcasing a rich harmonic vocabulary and a taste for showmanship. Each the A section and B section contain distinct sections as well.

There are many YouTube recordings of this particular marvel, but among the best is Zimerman:

In this recording, B (sostenuto) begins at 3:33, C begins with a furious diminished arpeggiation at 7:05 (and includes at 7:49 the first return to Bb minor since the opening of the piece!). The recapitulation of A begins at 8:26, and rips into the final coda at 9:57.

More thoughts on meaning and phrasing to follow.