Mostly Music
domingo, setembro 29
ROSINHA NÃO
Today I went to a street manifestation against our (probable) future governor, Rosinha. It was a very Carioca event: everybody there campaigning not for someone, but against. The war cry was "anyone will do, you can vote in any of the other 3. But we cannot have 4 more years of the same" (well, yes, that is shorter and sounds better in Portuguese).
There were mostly young people, but also mothers with babies, older folks (mom went with us), dogs with "Rosinha não" stickers, teenagers on roller skates... It was a beautiful day, the sky was amazingly beautiful. Before getting to Vieira Souto (that is where the crowd was, and it's on the beach...) we had lunch at a new restaurant in Copacabana. lunch was very nice, but the desserts were particularly yummy. I was sorry for Tom, who missed it.
sábado, setembro 28
PHILIP SOUSA BLARING OVER THE SPEAKERS? I WOULD FLEE, TOO...
BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston transit police have enlisted the late American composers George Gershwin and John Philip Sousa in their fight against crime.
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police are piping in a mix of show tunes and marches at a city subway station in order to drive away the large numbers of aggressive teens who used to loiter there after school, the Boston Globe newspaper reported on Sunday.
"We tried arresting the kids last year. That didn't work at all. We just wanted to try something different," William Fleming, acting chief of the MBTA Police, told the paper.
MBTA officials said the sounds of brass and strings blaring over the newly installed speakers are already having their desired effect, reducing crowds at the Forest Hills station, where there had been two to three fights daily.
Although several youths have complained about the music, fewer of them are loitering -- to the delight of officials and those who work in the station.
"Music soothes the savage beast," a clerk who works in the station was quoted as saying. "They're leaving, and I ain't seen no fights."
SILENCE IS GOLDEN...
PAINESVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A young man convicted of disorderly conduct for blasting his car stereo was sentenced to three hours of silence.
Kenyata Reid, 22, served the sentence Tuesday, when a park ranger dropped him off more than a mile inside a forested stretch of parkland about 25 miles northeast of Cleveland.
Reid had gotten in hot water by blasting his car stereo in front of a police officer. Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti offered Reid a choice: two days in jail or three hours alone in the woods.
quinta-feira, setembro 26
AND THE NEWS HIT THE WORLD thanks for the tip, Carminha!)
Land of Mozart introduces the veggie orchestra
From the Houston Chronicle:
VIENNA, Austria - Forget the cello, just listen to that cucumberophone. The land of Mozart will be exporting its latest cultural product next week when the First Viennese Vegetable Orchestra goes on its nine-date debut European tour.
The orchestra, which consists of eight musicians, one sound technician and one cook, plays vegetable-based instruments they make themselves.
"We believe that we can produce sound that cannot be easily produced by other instruments. You can hear the difference, it sometimes sounds like animals, sometimes just abstract sounds," the band says in its homepage (www.gemueseorchester.org).
It takes the band about half an hour to make a carrot flute, and under 15 minutes to make a cucumberophone, which has a pepper bell and cucumber tubing. Other instruments include celeriac bongos, eggplant cymbals and pumpkin drums.
The sounds are amplified using a variety of microphones.
At the end of a performance, which can include free jazz, experimental music, or the Radetzky March by Austrian Johann Strauss, the stage is cleared and a cook uses the instruments to prepare a soup for both audience and musicians.
"The audience has the possibility of once again enjoying what they just heard," the band adds. "We employ a real chef for the preparation of the soup so it is indeed tasty and very special."
Their mothers obviously never told them not to play with their food.
MORE ABOUT THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
(or: And I thought I had seen everything, heard everything!)
...The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra blows carved-out carrots, taps turnips, claps with eggplant cymbals, twangs on rhubarb fibers, and rustles parsley and greens, all in the creation of an experimental sound that eventually winds up -- literally -- in the audience's stomach. (...) ." (Washington Post, 11.April 2001).
Some people need complex computer and synthesizer contraptions to create indefinable creaks and blubbers, hisses and roars, squeaks and screeches. But that is also possible quite naturally: with vegetables (Falter No.22, 2000).
...With the occasional help from mixers and juicers, the vegetable orchestra conjures from the blubbers, creaks and squeaks, veritable country, marches and even free core jazz to please even the most die-hard electronic music fans (Standard, 10 August 2000).
...different than anything else ever heard in classic, jazz or pop (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 3/4 February 2001).
The sound impressions are unique, at times magnificent (Basler Zeitung, 14 March 2000).
... The notations are a basic guide to a cosmos of sounds (Wiener Zeitung, 25-26 February 2000).
...It all sounds, in the truest sense of the word organic. the repertoire of the ensemble is correspondingly experimental, with the exception of Pieces like the Radetzky March (Salzburger Nachrichten, 6 March 2000).
DAILY WISDOM
Because the truth is, we never know for sure about ourselves. Who we'll sleep with if given the opportunity, who we'll betray in the right circumstance, whose faith and love we will reward with our own.[...] Only after we've done a thing do we know what we'll do, and by then whatever we've done has already begun to sever itself from clear significance, at least for the doer.
Which is why we have spouses and children and parents and colleagues and friends, because someone has to know us better than we know ourselves. We need them to tell us. We need them to say, "I know you, Al. You are not the kind of man who.".
from Straight Man, by Richard Russo
domingo, setembro 22
EX LIBRIS
I have just finished reading a lovely little book, "Ex Libris" by Anne Fadiman. A birthday gift from my friend Jayme, this book about books and book lovers made me feel part of a special club, and I laughed aloud when I read about a few very familiar compulsions (such as automatically correcting any written text, even restaurant menus!). It is too bad that the translation leaves much to be desired. A "fruit macedoine" is not a "fruta macedoine"!!!! But the worse is really the translation of the few poems quoted. Even so, this is a great gift for anyone who enjoys reading.
Anne Fadiman
A REVIEW FOR GOLDBERG...
BACH Arias & cantatas by Johann Michael Bach, Johann Christoph Bach,Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Melchior Hoffmann. Gerard Lesne (alto), Il Seminário Musicale. Astrée, E8873 (59:12)
Whenever the name Bach is mentioned, Johann Sebastian is foremost in everybody’s mind. Among musicians and music-lovers, his sons occupy a place of honor. We imagine that the second generation was so good because they had the best example at home. But we tend to forget that J.S. Bach himself was the product of a lineage of notable musicians.
In this disk Gerard Lesne performs vocal music by Bach and some of his elders, as well as a Hoffmann piece in the same vein. A wise and beautiful choice. Opening a window into a great tradition that frequently we only glimpse at from the outside, these works are fascinating:deep, dramatic, and very, very sad. The religious strain that ran in this family is evident here, and it is partly responsible for the profound, expressive nature of the compositions.
These magnificent musicians play with precision, taste, and a thorough understanding of the style and emotional scope of the music. The result is well balanced, always grabbing the listener’s ears, while never letting go of his soul. Lesne has a unique voice, high in register but dark in timbre. He uses it with complete mastery, a well-tuned instrument with characteristics that make it particularly suited to this repertoire. Perfectly centered, very sweet, with a built-in nostalgic streak. But mainly, it sounds vulnerable, and that, even more than its register, is what makes us associate it with a feminine persona.
Lesne uses this to his advantage, stressing not the sublime in these arias, but the human. We often imagine that, underneath the controlled surface, he is just at the verge of an emotional meltdown. That never happens. But the subtle shade of sentiment cast over the whole CD is both beautifully disturbing and mercifully familiar. We have all felt like this sometimes. But few have been able to express it so touchingly.
Gerard Lesne
sexta-feira, setembro 20
THE ULTIMATE WEAPON FOR PROTECTION
Today, reading Lynn's Blog, I found this little note:
"A group of political activists attacked pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim in a Jerusalem restaurant, calling him a "traitor" for performing in the West Bank city of Ramallah last week, the Tel Aviv newspaper Ha'aretz reports. Barenboim's wife fended off the assault by throwing vegetables at the attackers, who were identified as activists from the rightist Kach party. The newspaper did not indicate that anyone was hurt."
My favorite part is where they describe Barenboim's wife "fending off the assault by throwing vegetables at the attackers". Vegetables? What kind of vegetables do they eat over there? And how are they cooked?
quarta-feira, setembro 18
segunda-feira, setembro 16
WRITER'S BLOCK
I am having a hard time writing my reviews. The problem is that all the CDs that I received to review this month are ok. Not a single one is ridiculously terrible. But none is great. Worse, they are all good (and bad) in the same way, and I don't want to write the same review 8 times. The weird thing is that they are radically different - Bach suites for cello, Bach's well tempered clavier, Couperin pieces for gamba, classical concerts for the flute, and so on - so one would imagine that they would awaken completely different reactions in me. Not so. Sometimes I have this awful sensation that maybe I don't really like music....
sábado, setembro 14
On Parting
ALAS! our pleasant moments fly
On rapid wings away,
While those recorded with a sigh,
Mock us by long delay.
Time,--envious time,--loves not to be
In company with mirth,
But makes malignant pause to see
The work of pain on earth.
Edward Coote Pinkney
sexta-feira, setembro 13
APARECEU A MARGARIDA....
Tom has been complaining (rightly so!) about my disappearance from this blog. Ah, life has been complicated. First of all my mom broke her foot, which in itself is not a big tragedy, yet it makes her more dependent on me for practical matters, and also more needy in general. Then there have been classes, and reviews, and concerts... and I admit, my lazyness, pure and simple. And also, last but not least, friends in need.
Today I spent the morning (from 7 to 1) at a funeral. My friend Chico's mother died yesterday, and he asked me to be there with him. A very sad affair. He had been going through a long stretch of bad luck, and was already desperately depressed when his mother was hospitalized. She was the only positive facet of his life at present.
I wish there was something I could do to help.
sexta-feira, setembro 6
quinta-feira, setembro 5
terça-feira, setembro 3
SORRY, BUT THIS IS JUST FOR MY PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING FRIENDS...
My friend Fernando Moura (a fabulous musician, and a true Renaissance man) lost his father this past Saturday. He sent me a touching e-mail. Here it is:
O pai de volta à terra
Passamos no crematório e pegamos a caixinha com as cinzas. Minha mãe chorando dizendo:
- Agora vou ser feito “Barravento” (“Não quero mais viver, Janaína, se Bento não voltar” diz a canção).
Subimos direto para Teresópolis, mamãe:
- Ele mostrava assim como queria que as cinzas dele fossem espalhadas por cima do riacho do fundo do quintal.
Eramos 6 da família e uma vizinha que apareceu. Mamãe, eu, Laurinha, Juliana, Lucas, Leonardo, cada um com um copo de uísque, a bebida dele, fomos espargindo o pai no ar. Uma poeira leve voava, o resto caia no rio e esbranquiçava a areia do fundo, jogamos flores e folhas do jardim e ... uísque na água, a música no CD-player era “Sonhos de uma noite de verão”, de Mendelssohn. Choramos, às vezes convulsivamente, falamos dele, rimos.
Impressionante como se pode chorar e rir assim no mesmo dia.
Achamos roupas dele que nos serviam, um moleton para Lucas, jaqueta pra mim, camisa de flanela pra Juliana...
O pai voltou pra terra e ficou conosco na memória que também voltará um dia à terra, e assim por diante, neste ciclo da vida eterna.
segunda-feira, setembro 2
PERIOD INSTRUMENTS
Yesterday we had a small sarau here: 3 baroque flutes, a keyboard, a cello. We played Léclair (Deuxième récreation de musique) , Boismortier, Bach, Locatelli, Haydn. And I realized one of the great advantages of baroque instruments: you can have a music soirée at home, past midnight, and your neighbors won't complain about the noise...
