Saturday, August 14, 2004
I borrow four never-heard-before CDs from the Esplanade Library today.
Film music buffs, take a look at Shostakovich. Do not belittle him next to John Williams or Hans Zimmer for that matter. Shostakovich's music for the screen is just as individualistic as his serious works. In fact, the wit and sarcasm from his serious works can just be found in the film scores. His marches are not Pomp and Circumstance, rather, a parody of the great Communist music with discords here and there. Sometimes the music is irresistibly cute, as if Shostakovich had been grinning with glee at the film while writing the music.
Paul McCartney is another respected persona in music, not just as a rock band performer and songwriter, but also a serious composer. That is what the music industry should be producing, not some hip hop trash or boob-flasher like Britney Spears, or simply game up on cheapskate boy bands that seem to be saturating up the performance marketplace. The Idol series should be taking aim at this, cultivating musicians and performers who are truly dedicated to their art and are constantly expanding and experimenting and crossing boundaries.
"Standing Stone" is based on a poem in a Celtic setting. There is an extremely beautiful central theme; I don't know how to describe it in words, but it simply lifts your heart to the zenith. It is sweet and fragile when played by the flute, and accompanied by the harp. It is rousing and inspiring when the entire orchestra plays it, the melody being led by the strings playing in doubled octaves in the high range. Even more angelic and heavenly when the choir joins in with a rush of the timpani and cymbals.
20th century music knows no boundaries. Tan Dun's opera "The Peony Pavilion" is scored for a small ensemble, including electric instruments. You could possibly think of it as some rock band performance, or even a musical. He constantly uses a rhythm that could be mistaken to have come from an acapella piece, or a pop ballad. As usual, Tan's instrumentation mixes his Eastern origins with the West, incorporating the pipa, synthesiser, Chinese drums, to name but a few.
Charles Ives' Second Symphony is just pure fun. He throws in the very songs he knows, such as "Camptown Races" and "Yankee Doodle". The tunes are not very obvious, though. He reworks them such that they seem like they were composed by Ives himself. Nevertheless you can still hear faint renditions of parts of the original songs. It represents one of the voices of American music, the others being the Cowboy West by Aaron Copland and Ferde Grofe and the jazzy East of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.
¶ 8/14/2004 05:46:00 pm Film music buffs, take a look at Shostakovich. Do not belittle him next to John Williams or Hans Zimmer for that matter. Shostakovich's music for the screen is just as individualistic as his serious works. In fact, the wit and sarcasm from his serious works can just be found in the film scores. His marches are not Pomp and Circumstance, rather, a parody of the great Communist music with discords here and there. Sometimes the music is irresistibly cute, as if Shostakovich had been grinning with glee at the film while writing the music.
Paul McCartney is another respected persona in music, not just as a rock band performer and songwriter, but also a serious composer. That is what the music industry should be producing, not some hip hop trash or boob-flasher like Britney Spears, or simply game up on cheapskate boy bands that seem to be saturating up the performance marketplace. The Idol series should be taking aim at this, cultivating musicians and performers who are truly dedicated to their art and are constantly expanding and experimenting and crossing boundaries.
"Standing Stone" is based on a poem in a Celtic setting. There is an extremely beautiful central theme; I don't know how to describe it in words, but it simply lifts your heart to the zenith. It is sweet and fragile when played by the flute, and accompanied by the harp. It is rousing and inspiring when the entire orchestra plays it, the melody being led by the strings playing in doubled octaves in the high range. Even more angelic and heavenly when the choir joins in with a rush of the timpani and cymbals.
20th century music knows no boundaries. Tan Dun's opera "The Peony Pavilion" is scored for a small ensemble, including electric instruments. You could possibly think of it as some rock band performance, or even a musical. He constantly uses a rhythm that could be mistaken to have come from an acapella piece, or a pop ballad. As usual, Tan's instrumentation mixes his Eastern origins with the West, incorporating the pipa, synthesiser, Chinese drums, to name but a few.
Charles Ives' Second Symphony is just pure fun. He throws in the very songs he knows, such as "Camptown Races" and "Yankee Doodle". The tunes are not very obvious, though. He reworks them such that they seem like they were composed by Ives himself. Nevertheless you can still hear faint renditions of parts of the original songs. It represents one of the voices of American music, the others being the Cowboy West by Aaron Copland and Ferde Grofe and the jazzy East of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.
