Dylan and more

I found myself watching the Martin Scorcese documentary on Bob Dylan last night. I have to admit, I've never been a big Dylan fan. I can appreciate his unique place in the history of American popular music, but I still don't like him all that much. Still, there are a few things about the documentary that I found noteworthy:

The interviews with Dylan and some of his compatriots reveal a complex, intelligent individual who has spent the better part of forty years trying to remain as distant and enigmatic as possible. Dylan claims to have come to New York with no history or identity and to have written his lyrics with no idea of what they mean. This may be true, but I see someone with a very clear sense of himself who has manufactured each part of his artistic persona with great care. I think Dylan knows exactly what he is writing and how he will be perceived. He talks in contradictory phrases to blur his real feelings on things. It's all just part of his desire to keep the most important part of his art to himself. Am I saying Dylan is a con-artist? Sort of, but I think there is still an amount integrity (whatever that means) in his music.

The more interesting part of the documentary for me was all of the archival footage, both of Dylan and of his forebears and contemporaries. I was especially struck by the folk-blues singer Odetta with her raw intensity and John Jacob Niles who the Slate critic David Yaffe called "a silver-haired kook with an autoharp and a scary falsetto." I'd known about Niles for a while as the originator of "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair," "I Wonder As I Wonder," and "Go Way From My Window" but did not know he was also a performer. I remember a coaching class a few years ago where we were debating whether Niles collected these tunes or composed them himself (they are always credited to "John Jacob Niles" and not "Traditional, arr. John Jacob Niles"). It seems that Niles did indeed compose the songs himself, albeit with a brilliant synthesis of his own writing and various folk sources. He shared with Dvorak and Chopin the ability to compose such authentic replicas of folk music that the music only sounds as if has been around forever. Apparantly Niles was quite an interesting figure balancing a career as an instrument builder, singer (both in his own folk performances and classically of all places at the Chicago Lyric), ethno-musicologist and composer. His voice is definitely a bit strange, and reminds me a bit of one my favorite singers Jeff Buckley, both in its intensity and its willingness to soar into countertenor territory. You can hear Niles at this site or at the Smithsonian Folkways site which also contains all kinds of rare audio treasures.

Beethoven in your living room (or on the subway)

Recently came across an interesting article discussing how music has become ubiquitous due to mp3 players, car stereos, cell phone ringtones and the like:

"...devices like the iPod threaten to decontextualize and thus dull the impact of music even further. The iPod's shuffle feature may be a great way to sample the range of your record collection; but I would argue that hearing Beethoven butted up against Dr. Dre hinders appreciation of either artist, in the same way that creme brule makes a lousy side dish to kim chee."

This reminds me somewhat of what Benjamin Britten had to say when he received the first Aspen Award in 1964:

"Anyone, anywhere, at any time can listen to the B minor Mass upon one condition only - that they possess a machine. No qualification is required of any sort - faith, virtue, education, experience, age. Music is now free for all...Music demands more from a listener than simply the possession of a tape-machine or a transistor radio."

I don't really want to get into a whole discussion about music dying at the hands of technology, but I would like to make a few points. I think that having music at our fingertips can be a good thing. See Kyle Gann's post about using mp3's as a teaching tool. This is a great idea and I think many music professors are breathing a collective sigh of relief about having entire semester listening lists at their disposal. But I think having music available at all times has contributed to a somewhat short-attention span way of listening to music. When it is everywhere, it is harder to focus even when one wants to. I always feel weird when I'm listening to a larger musical work on a recording and then I have to go out or become distracted doing something else, leaving the work unresolved. Surely that's not what the composer had in mind when writing the music in question. On the other hand, recordings have allowed many of us to enjoy works we might not otherwise get to hear. Still, it does make it difficult to fully appreciate a live performance when we are used to having the freedom to come and go as we please. I guess what I am saying is we all need to take time out to really focus on music, to let it move us as intended. To let it teach us something about the world or to provide a respite from so many of the horrible things that surround us. It may sound cliche, but music really is a sanctuary. Embrace it.

Miscellany

...I've added some links to some of my favorite organizations, publications and blogs. Enjoy.

...A mixed day for my Philly ties:
Good news: The Eagles defeated the San Francisco 49ers 42-3. So nice to see the re-emergence of the Eagles' offense. Also, the Phillies are still in the N.L. wild-card race deep into the season. Usually they collapse right after the All-Star break...

Bad news: From the Philadelphia Inquirer: The Philadelphia Singers, one of Philadelphia's most important musical organizations, has announced the cancellation of half of the concert season. The Singers have provided many young singers like myself a chance to perform in a high level professional choral ensemble, gaining insight from experienced singers and conductors. The Philly Orchestra's decision to try to "upgrade" their image by only using the professional Singers and not Philly's talented amateur groups has hurt everyone: The Singers have sort of lost their place in Philadelphia's choral scene, becoming known primarily for their concerts with the Orchestra and not for their own interesting programs. Talented local amateur and college choral groups (including my alma mater Westminster Choir College) have lost the opportunity to perform with one of the greatest orchestras in America. Has the Orchestra really gained anything by only hiring professionals? Surely amateur groups can turn in good performances of major choral works. Amateurs tend to be better rehearsed and more willing to work anyway. Unfortunately the author of the Inquirer article has in his own way directly contributed to the difficulties with his relentless diatribes against the Singers' (and other local choral groups') concerts. I know critics should tell the "truth" as they see it, but is it right to literally criticize groups out of existence?

The art of reviewing

Kudos to Anne Midgette in the New York Times for writing a review that is aimed at first time operagoers. It is highly refreshing to see someone in music journalism breaking the mold here, while still writing a constructive review. She makes the interesting point that listeners may not be to blame for thinking a classical music performance is dull:

"For me, as someone who loves opera, the point [of a review] is actually to encourage everyone to think more critically about what they did and didn't like and challenge the things that didn't work, rather than simply praising it for being lovely and letting people continue to believe that if they don't like classical music, the fault lies with them rather than a possibly indifferent performance."

I've long lamented the state of most classical music reviews. It seems that more time is spent on dissecting the work and the composer than actually talking about the performance. Look, if I wanted to read about the Mozart 'Requiem', I'd go to the library and read a book on it. I read concert reviews to find out which performers to watch for, how the performing forces were able to respond to the challenges presented by the given work, and in opera how the drama was presented and what the sets and costumes looked like. For concertgoers reading reviews the morning after, they are hoping to find out what a literate, intelligent person has to say about the performance. If anything, it should make their next concert experience more enjoyable because they will have additional things to listen for and a broader way of perceiving the concert. I'm often appalled at how inadequately many reviews address these issues. Education, people! That is how classical music will survive. People need to feel like it's okay to not get everything or to find some things boring. We in music need to train people how to listen and to feel confident that their perception matters. It is okay to have questions about music and wonder why certain things did not work.

I am encouraged both by Anne Midgette's review and by City Opera's inventive way of opening their season. It's too bad that Paul Kellogg has decided to move on from his post as general director there. Big shoes to fill...

The Best British Songs of All Time

From the BBC: The Beatles' A Day in the Life was ranked the best British song of all-time. Does this mean that Dowland, Purcell, Vaughan Williams and Britten didn't make the grade, or were simply discounted because they weren't pop? The phrase "of all-time" is a bit presumtuous in my book. Still, I think the article has probably identified the best British pop song ever. The mixture of avant-garde elements, lyrics as well as solid pop craftsmanship gives A Day in the Life its strength. So now it's time for me to identify just a few of my top British pop songs. Of course, this does bring up some questions. Do I list my favorite British pop songs, or songs that I feel contribute something signficant to the field of British pop music but that I may not like as much? I decided to just list my own skewed list of favorites (sorry Elvis Costello, Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Pink Floyd).

1) A Day in the Life (for the reasons discussed above).
2) Reel Around the Fountain-The Smiths.
-Who would think to put a melancholy, simple ballad like this as the first track on a first album? Well, that's exactly what The Smiths decided to do. Usually bands go for a big bang that will get the album off to a good start. But this really is a quintessential Smiths track: Morrisey's limited but effective monotone, dryly funny and melancholy lyrics, jangly guitar with the occasional odd chord change and a subtly interesting bass line. Highly influential for most mopey Brit groups out there today.
3) How to Disappear Completely-Radiohead
-There are so many Radiohead songs I could put on here, but this is probably my favorite. It may lack some of the complex structure of some of their other songs, but it more than makes up for it by being so emotionally compelling. Radiohead is great at subtle details which lend depth to their songs. In this song, the bass is in duples against the triple meter of the acoustic guitar while strings interact seamlessly with electronically altered guitar samples in a slow orchestral layering. The simple chord changes and somewhat lilting feeling are hypnotic enough to lend a sense of comfort, which is slowly undermined by subtle dissonance. Eventually the song disintegrates into atonality (much like A Day in the Life, giving the sense of "disappearing completely") only to come through on the other side into a gorgeous falsetto vocalise and the introduction of a simple E major chord. It is truly ravishing.

Some Facts

Some of these figures may help us understand how the situation in New Orleans got to be as bad as it is. This is more than a terrible natural disaster - it lays bare how large the class gap is in this country. Take a look:

-28% of people in New Orleans are under the poverty line. Compare this with 9% of the general American population. (NY Times)
-Of those under the poverty line in New Orleans, 84% are African-American. (NY Times)
-50,000 households in New Orleans do not have cars. 35% of black households do not have cars, compared to 15% of the white households. (NY Times)
-Public assistance checks are typically mailed on the first of the month. Since the hurricane came at the end of the month, many did not have money they could have used to possibly evacuate. About 4.5 percent of the population in the disaster area received public assistance; nationwide, the number was about 3.5 percent. (AP)
-Nationwide, about 7 percent of households with children are headed by a single mother. In the three dozen worst hit neighborhoods (in N.O., Mississippi, and Alabama), 12 percent were single-mother households. (AP)
-Many of the poorest neighborhoods are in low-elevation areas of the city and were therefore hit with the most severe flooding.
-New Orleans was ranked the eighth most dangerous city in America in a study published in November, 2004. (Morgan Quitno).

There are some interesting maps showing demographics, crime statistics as well as the extent of the flooding.

If anyone has any more important facts and figures, please feel free to post a comment.

Records

I've been meaning to write a post about the record industry for awhile, and the appearance of a few recent articles makes it that much more appropriate.

First, from the pop world . It's been reported that many "legacy" acts such as Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones are having difficulty selling albums even though they still bring in $1000 a ticket for live shows. The article says that rap is having the opposite problem, with healthy record sales but weak ticket sales. Only a few bands are managing to have their cake and eat it too: Coldplay, U2, Josh Groban and a few country artists. Classical music fans should be somewhat relieved that even the mighty Rolling Stones are having trouble selling records. The reasons are somewhat similar too: fans feel they have all the Stones records they could ever want and are hesitant to buy a new album, even if it's good. How many times have you been in the record store and seen an interesting looking recording of a Beethoven symphony and thought: "You know, I already have 3 recordings of this." This leads directly into the next article which discusses the end of the era of big-budget opera recordings with Placido Domingo's new recording of Tristan und Isolde. Record companies have (finally) realized that full opera recordings don't sell well, no matter how much money is spent on the production and marketing. I guess the future of opera recordings lies in DVDs with their bonus features, sub-titles and of course the visual element (which I think is essential to the appreciation of opera). Still, it is kind of sad to know that there will never be another blockbuster recording of Tristan; kind of like a major movie studio deciding they can't make big-budget epics anymore. I can only imagine the glory days of old when a major opera recording would arrive in stores every week. Of course, what's at play here is simple economics. There is an immense amount of money that goes into financing a project like this. Still, I think record companies are not doing all they can to keep the industry healthy. I am a bit baffled by the fact that the majors are not grabbing at the chance to digitize all their music and sell it online. There is much less overhead, out of print works can stay in the catalog and it cuts out the middleman (sorry, record stores). As much as I love I Tunes, why does it still have the lion's share of the marketplace? I suppose it's because of their technology, but still. Think about it: you could log onto Sony's website and have the choice of any recording released under the Sony umbrella. Naxos has done this a bit, where the user can pay a membership fee to stream any music in the Naxos catalog. This is good, but what if you want to listen to recordings in your car or on the train? I guess price is a bit of an issue as most record labels would want to charge more than the $.99/song at I Tunes. But by making the whole catalogue available in one place, they could have a much larger selection than I Tunes ever will and eventually cultivate a loyal base of customers. In addition, encryption technology has improved, so it is harder to make infinite duplicates of an album. So what's the hold up?

The last article talks intelligently about the crisis affecting Hyperion Records. It is sad to see such a wonderful label on the ropes financially. It would be shame if multi-disc projects like the absolutely brilliant Schubert Edition were never made again. Save Hyperion Records!