Speaking of Music: Alex Ross’s 20th Century
My subtitle for Alex Ross’s addictive encyclopedia The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century would be: How the headquarters of musical composition moved from Vienna to Los Angeles: from the old home address of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms to its new home in and around Hollywood: home, that is, of the refugee modernists Stravinsky and Schoenberg and of course the movie business and the film score: name your monument from Bernard Herrmann’s themes for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941) and the great Hitchcocks, to Tan Dun’s for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
To Listen: Get Adobe Flash Player, or download an mp3 at the bottom of the post.
Alex Ross of The New Yorker
Actually, the big-picture outline in my own amateur ears is different — more Vienna to New Orleans and Havana, or: How the Second Viennese School after Schoenberg, Webern and Berg petered out in unlistenable, elitist theory, and all the world’s music was recharged by Afro-Caribbean dance rhythms, suffering, triumph, spirituality and social consciousness. The story in my head is not so much Mahler to John Williams, say, as Bartok to Charlie Parker and Chucho Valdes. But then, in the words of Oliver Sacks, “what do I know?”
However we listen to the 20th Century, the links (“the glassy chords of Thelonius Monk have a Schoenbergian tinge,” Alex Ross writes) as well as the tensions (Duke Ellington’s polite but firm rejection of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess as “Negro opera”) and the often grisly politics (Shostakovich’s stricken waiting for Stalin’s phone calls, Richard Strauss’s abasement before Goebbels and Hitler) are endlessly absorbing. And Alex Ross, the New Yorker’s music critic and star blogger, is brilliant at the many jobs involved here: interviewing, distilling hundreds of major biographies, and above all: listening to the music and his own heart. Creative convergence is the keynote of Ross’s expectation for the new century, after the fantastic diversifications of the old one:
If you were to listen to [the modern pop artist] Bjork’s “An Echo, A Stain,” in which the singer declaims fragmentary melodies against a soft cluster of choral voices, and then move on to Osvaldo Golijov’s song cycle Ayre, where pulsating dance beats underpin multi-ethnic songs of Moorish Spain, you might conclude that Bjork’s was the classical composition and Golijov’s was something else. One possible destination for twenty-first-century music is a final “great fusion”: intelligent pop artists and extroverted composers speaking more or less the same language.
Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, page 542.
Osvaldo Golijov: fusion gets its groove
We are lucky to have Osvaldo Golijov in the conversation. Osvaldo is the bubbling embodiment of the new complexity of things. His Passion according to Saint Mark (2000) was my introduction: a Christian meditation in the tradition of the Bach Passions, but with Cuban drummers on the Boston Symphony stage, from a young composer who grew up in Argentina in a Rumanian Jewish family — with a passion for Astor Piazzola’s tangoes and all the demanding dance music of Latin America. He is famous now for his collaborations (with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and the Kronos String Quartet) and for his serial immersion in folk and classical traditions: sephardic, flamenco, gypsy and Arab musics, among others. And as it happens, his first big film score is just out, with Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth. He speaks up here for restoration of the “groove” in so-called classical music — not least because Bach would demand it.
free viagra
buy viagra online
generic viagra
how does viagra work
cheap viagra
buy viagra
buy viagra online inurl
viagra 6 free samples
viagra online
viagra for women
viagra side effects
female viagra
natural viagra
online viagra
cheapest viagra prices
herbal viagra
alternative to viagra
buy generic viagra
purchase viagra online
free viagra without prescription
viagra attorneys
free viagra samples before buying
buy generic viagra cheap
viagra uk
generic viagra online
try viagra for free
generic viagra from india
fda approves viagra
free viagra sample
what is better viagra or levitra
discount generic viagra online
viagra cialis levitra
viagra dosage
viagra cheap
viagra on line
best price for viagra
free sample pack of viagra
viagra generic
viagra without prescription
discount viagra
gay viagra
mail order viagra
viagra inurl
generic viagra online paypal
generic viagra overnight
generic viagra online pharmacy
generic viagra uk
buy cheap viagra online uk
suppliers of viagra
how long does viagra last
viagra sex
generic viagra soft tabs
generic viagra 100mg
buy viagra onli
generic viagra online without prescription
viagra energy drink
cheapest uk supplier viagra
viagra cialis
generic viagra safe
viagra professional
viagra sales
viagra free trial pack
viagra lawyers
over the counter viagra
best price for generic viagra
viagra jokes
buying viagra
viagra samples
viagra sample
cialis
generic cialis
cheapest cialis
buy cialis online
buying generic cialis
cialis for order
what are the side effects of cialis
buy generic cialis
what is the generic name for cialis
cheap cialis
cialis online
buy cialis
cialis side effects
how long does cialis last
cialis forum
cialis lawyer ohio
cialis attorneys
cialis attorney columbus
cialis injury lawyer ohio
cialis injury attorney ohio
cialis injury lawyer columbus
prices cialis
cialis lawyers
viagra cialis levitra
cialis lawyer columbus
online generic cialis
daily cialis
cialis injury attorney columbus
cialis attorney ohio
cialis cost
cialis professional
cialis super active
how does cialis work
what does cialis look like
cialis drug
viagra cialis
cialis to buy new zealand
cialis without prescription
free cialis
cialis soft tabs
discount cialis
cialis generic
generic cialis from india
cheap cialis sale online
cialis daily
cialis reviews
cialis generico
how can i take cialis
cheap cialis si
cialis vs viagra
levitra
generic levitra
levitra attorneys
what is better viagra or levitra
viagra cialis levitra
levitra side effects
buy levitra
levitra online
levitra dangers
how does levitra work
levitra lawyers
what is the difference between levitra and viagra
levitra versus viagra
which works better viagra or levitra
buy levitra and overnight shipping
levitra vs viagra
canidan pharmacies levitra
how long does levitra last
viagra cialis levitra
levitra acheter
comprare levitra
levitra ohne rezept
levitra 20mg
levitra senza ricetta
cheapest generic levitra
levitra compra
cheap levitra
levitra overnight
levitra generika
levitra kaufen
December 18th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Thank you!- can’t wait to hear this.
December 18th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Excellent show Chris and guests. I would like to hear even more about the blossoming and integration of electronic/computational/connectivity processing power into composition, music, etc.; a means for extending the vocabulary and possibilities. A cursory search yielded this web site: Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise
December 18th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
The intro to this podcast was somewhat reminiscent of the seemingly endless musicology debates circling around the internet in the ’80-90s regarding the validity of including “jazz” in the “classical” canon. This was the jazz age of anxiety with post-modernist Winton Marsalis on one extreme, reviving Dixieland, and Miles Davis’ experimentations with hip-hop, tugging at the other. Correspondingly, on the “classical” dimension there was John Williams and Philip Glass – to stay with the more popular noms.
In retrospect this all seems to be a reemergence of the phenomenon occurring in the early part of the century. As a rekindled interest in the “roots” of music that inspired both Bartók and Stravinsky planed out into alternate dimensions; there was a later, analysis-laden fatigue that left a great rift between composers and their audiences.
Is this vibrant multi-dimensionalism not a similarly stressful contributor to the peaceful coexistence between listening public and artist? The program laid out a course through music history that has the appearance of a recent merger and acquisition chart. Pity the poor bâtard trying to look up an old chum by naively googling for Ma Bell’s Directory Assistance, but navigating a route through modern music is similarly fraught with, if not peril, then certainly frustration.
OK. But my oh my doesn’t it just seem that Korngold’s family tree runs rampant as the “Theme” on the program strongly suggests John Williams’ “Star Wars” and the “Adagio” is surely sire to Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays “Always and Forever.” Goligov is quoting Bernstein who is quoting Bartók. There’s some fertile ground being plowed.
December 24th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
A really nice discussion.
I’d like to add Miklos Rozsa to the list of composers for film that did outstanding work. In particular I was reminded of my fruitless search for a recording of Rozsa’s music for “Spellbound” the Hitchcock movie- the “Spellbound Concerto” and whereas I could not find it previously lo and behold a centenary boxed edition of his work, new recording, is out this year.
Let’s not forget Richard Rogers music for the WW2 TV series “Victory at Sea”.
It’s not so unusual that artists in other mediums, some of the greats, worked ( and work) commercially: Somerset Maugham, William Faulkner, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper come right to mind.
Speaking spellbound, Golijov at Symphony Hall that night was an unforgettable experience. The music really worked on me, had so many associations, a beautiful soup of associations, including the Jewish music I was raised on as well as the flamenco we have been getting deeply into (related to Jewish/gypsy). Yo-Yo Ma’s cello sounded at one point like horses galloping across the steppes of Asia. I look forward to having a recording of this when it happens but this is the first time that I am feeling that it would be hard to capture the full experience. It’ seemed like the hall itself ( the space) and perhaps the audience in it was essential.
December 25th, 2007 at 9:51 am
I am definitely in agreement that artificial categories (classical, jazz, pop, etc) are pointless and limiting. I’d even go so far as to acknowledge that it’s impossible to draw clear lines between music in any genre the provenance of which is primarily commercial and music composed with integrity of expression: there is good stuff and garbage from both.
However, the one distinction that I do think must be acknowledged is between music written to be self contained and music written in support of something outside of itself. The purpose of a film score is to enhance the film. The purpose of a military march is to inspire the troops. Even if adapted to a suite, or played out of context, these were not intended to express the composer’s emotion or world view; it is in composed in service to someone else’s.
More complex would be church music and opera. I know that great religious music can be appreciated and enjoyed by non believers, but I am not sure it can be created by them. Similarly, it would be futile to try to determine whether the score of an opera serves the libretto or vice-versa.
Thanks for a fascinating discussion. It was interesting to hear Alex Ross and Oswaldo Golijov interact with each other as well as with Chris.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
i’m glad nico muhly was mentioned at the end considering Bjork was mentioned with such praise. he worked on her scores
http://nicomuhly.com/
there was a New York magazine article about him somewhere a few months ago. his solo album “speaks volumes” is quite good, “keep in touch” perhaps the most human thing i’ve heard in a long time.
interesting that Ross’s book cover design mimicks such a specific portion of the 20th century (early), making it look like the content is trapped before WWII.