Posted by Li Robbins on November 20, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Soho The Dog is an unabashed "promulgator of crackpot theories," which keeps many of us gratefully amused.
And this one's really good. Here goes, taken right from the Dog's mouth, as it were, as he asks: Was Beethoven A Steroid Abuser?
"Wouldn't that explain an awful lot?" writes Soho. "The notoriously difficult personality? The megalomanaical fury of the middle period? The wild mood swings of the late period? The rather remarkable growth of his head? Dude's head went from normal to huge. Not to put too fine a point on it:"
Barry Bonds in 1986; Barry Bonds in 2007.
Beethoven in 1801; Beethoven in 1818.
Now, there is more evidence than this that Soho The Dog presents, but for that you will have to go directly to his blog, since such a crackpot theory deserves close scrutiny at source.
Posted by Li Robbins on November 20, 2007 at 12:00 PM
I think more songwriters should write lyrics including Canadian place names. It can do a lot to raise the profile of a town or even a province. Look at The Hip's Bobcaygeon, for example. Who can drive past it without thinking "hey, that's where the constellations came out, one star at a time?" Not I.
Or when thinking of Manitoba, is it not natural to also think "moody?" Or for some of us malcontents who grew up and left, what do we associate with our hometown but the words "I Hate," as cemented in our minds by The Weakerthans? Just kidding, really, many fond memories of the place. Besides, according to author James Sherrett, it is not an anti-Winnipeg song at all. (Mind you, Sherrett has written a novel called Up In Ontario.)
This one is new to me though -- a song about Winkler, Manitoba, by Bob King. Other than large farm equipment, I admit that I don't have a specific association with Winkler. But maybe The Winkler Song, played on DiscDrive today,will change all that? I'm telling you, songs are a way of getting your city, town, crossroads, footpath, whatever...on the map.
I also should point out that Bob is a very Canadian-place-oriented songwriter -- his recording How The West Was Fun, includes such titles as Take Me Back To Boissevain. If you're not familiar with Bob, he's the guy who wrote the classic Sandwiches Are Beautiful, a song that anyone who has ever had anything to do with children and music will know well. (Associations there too, of school busses on dusty prairie roads and children shrieking, in my case.)
Posted by Li Robbins on November 20, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Today Studio Sparks (12:00 pm, 12:30 NT) broadcasts Danish composer Carl Nielsen's Symphony n. 4, "The Inextinguishable," in a performance by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conducting.
Apparently Neilson called his work The Inextinguishable based on this apophthegm: “Music is life, and inextinguishable like it.”
Which seems to be true of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, which continues to be performed -- case in point today on SSParks when Montreal pianist Matt Herskowitz performs a solo piano version of the piece.
And if you haven't heard Gershwin himself playing it solo, you can now!
Posted by Li Robbins on November 20, 2007 at 07:00 AM
There are some issues upon which I cannot even pretend to have an opinion. A prime example: which is better, the CFL or the NFL? In my house, the key to the entire mystery of football's appeal seems to rest on the shoulders of one Green Bay Packer, Brett Favre. (Whose name, oddly enough, is pronounced Farve, but then again, Winnipeg has Portage-rhymes-with-porridge-Ave.) This leads me to assume that at least in the eyes my nearest and dearest and not very nationalistic, the NFL is obviously "better."
Well, Music & Co. bravely takes on the question today in a Cage Match, in the second hour of the programme, results announced on Friday.
But isn't the Grey Cup coming up next weekend? Won't better adjusted Canadians than I be sitting on tailgates freezing their butts (or I suppose in keeping with the Canadian-ness of the event that should be "bums") off and eating chile or some such? So surely the CFL, even in some musical guise will win? Only Music & Co. fans can decide.
Posted by Li Robbins on November 20, 2007 at 12:00 AM
There are no shortage of love songs in the jazz standards repertoire, many about the failure to find it. Just a few examples: Lover Man ("oh where can you be"), But Not For Me ("They're writing songs of love, but not..."). Or they're about being crushed by it -- "just who can solve its mystery, why should it make a fool of me?" and so on. (The last from This Thing Called Love, of course.)
But tonight when Tonic plays "music for lovers," they include some rare, happy lyrics too, like the Rogers & Hammerstein classic People Will Say We're in Love, sung in this instance by Canada's Sophie Milman. Even then the song is all about how to avoid having people recognize one's state of being in love though. Guess it's true there really isn't much mileage in writing about happiness.
Of course, one way around all of this, jazz-wise that is, is just to listen to instrumental versions. And one really weird way to do that, in the case of the above song, is off a jukebox...sort of.
Posted by Li Robbins on November 20, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Sangha is a Sanskrit word that I've seen translated as "assembly" or "group," or "spiritual community," and I suspect it is this last meaning that inspired a Vancouver based ensemble to take it as their name.
Because Sangha the musical group mixes music of various music cultures, including Persian, Indian, and Arabic. They're based in Vancouver, the instrumentation is Tar, Oud, Tombak and Tabla, and they've performed their cross-cultural music at festivals around B.C. This concert also features special guest vocalist Fatieh Honari.
And here's a little teaser (sans vocal though) of the group performing at the Vancouver International Jazz Fest. To hear a full concert -- tune into Tuesday night's Canada Live broadcast, that's at 8 p.m.
Posted by Li Robbins on November 19, 2007 at 07:09 PM
Take baroque harpsichord, add some laptop-generated loops and rhythms, what do you have? A collaboration between Canada's John Kameel Farah (said by the The Toronto Star, to be "redefining electronica") and Germany’s Volker Bertelmann, a.k.a. Hauschka (the prepared piano guy). It's part of The Signal's broadcast (10 p.m.) of highlights from a concert recorded at the Music Gallery in Toronto.
Speaking of pianos, and their occasional evolution, did you see the picture of the black & white, 16-foot grand designed by architect Daniel Libeskind for the Royal Ontario Museum's "Crystal" space? Here's the Globe and Mail piece about it, In the Key of Libsekind, and Blog TO's entry - a better image. Pretty wild. In my opinion almost anything would make the controversial Crystal more interesting -- were I of the beat generation, upon entering for the first time after hearing all the hype, my response would have been, "Dullsville." So I look forward to the piano, though thousands do not.
Posted by Li Robbins on November 19, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Lydecker: “Would you mind turning that off?”
McPherson: “Why, don’t you like it?”
Carpenter: “It was one of Laura’s favorites, not exactly classical, but sweet.”
Love it when characters in a movie refer to music that is actually the signature tune in the movie's soundtrack...but I don't know if I'd call Laura "sweet." Though maybe that's just because I so associate it with the movie -- and how could you not, it's pretty much all-Laura-all-the-time. That's OK, it's a good tune, and one that you can hear tonight on Tonic, performed by the Jazz at the Movies Band.
Speaking of things noir and jazz, re-watched Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) on the weekend. Don't know if you've ever seen it, but if you have you'll know that it features a very insistent kind of soundtrack by Miles Davis. Anyway, got me thinking how well suited jazz is to noir, at least that kind of highly stylized 1950s take on the genre.
Legend has it that Miles recorded the music overnight, sipping champagne with (spectacularly beautiful) star, Jeanne Moreau, and director Louis Malle. I hope legend has it right.
Posted by Li Robbins on November 19, 2007 at 03:00 PM
Have you ever been uncertain as to how to pronounce Bruch, as in composer Max Bruch? Here's your guide, according to the fine folks at DiscDrive.
"Bruch – rhymes with Brook, but with an aspirated ‘h’ in place of the 'ch.'" Of course Jurgen doesn't likely need that helpful hint, but others of us might. (You can double check his pronunciation if you like though, as he plays some of Bruch's music on today's show.)
Posted by Li Robbins on November 19, 2007 at 02:00 PM
Russell Braun (baritone) and Monica Whicher (soprano) star in a programme of music about peace.
Recorded during this year’s Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario, the concert presents sequences of songs by Barber, Mahler, Britten, Morawetz, Pete Seeger, Jacques Brel and Sting.
Of War and Peace at Concerts on Demand.
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