Genre Implosion: They’re your ears... believe them. Wednesdays, 9:30-10:00am on CFMU 93.3 FM in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and in streaming audio in real Eastern Standard Time at cfmu.mcmaster.ca
What kind of music do you like? What kind of music do you play? What genre of music is piece X, or band Y or artist Z? Why?
Genre Implosion: Radio Free-Genre, 30 weekly minutes of genre-free music and connective talk on CFMU 93.3 FM in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, was inspired by, and aired during the final two terms of a continuing project that began in fulfillment of the Thesis requirements of the McMaster University School of the Arts’ M.A. program in Music Criticism. It delved into the system, phenomenon and/or construction we know as Musical Genre. Each week its widely diverse but musically-connected offerings took listeners on a short holiday from the segregated sections of the record store, the either too-general or too specific genre categories of the Internet download site, and the industry and media assumption that your mind and wallet open only for what you already know and like.
Genre Implosion: Radio Free-Genre was built around bypassing the loaded and traditionally-politicised factors that pigeon hole music into arbitrary classifications, and rather, zeroing in on foundational ideas and audible musical content (rhythm, melody, affect, text, and so on) that define how it sounds and what it’s ‘about’. We didn’t take the once-fashionable point of view that music consists only of its sounds or constituent ideas - just suggested that your taste for certain sounds and ideas might lead you to musical places the commercial and connotive restrictions of musical genre might not otherwise allow. Recalling the FM revolution of the 1970s, Genre Implosion: Radio Free-Genre sought out and presented the musical through-lines that unite Metal to Mozart, Romantic to R & B, Grunge to Gregorian, Celtic to Chilean... but without ever mentioning those titles, which for 30 precious minutes of the listener’s musical life each week, just didn’t matter.
The Genre Implosion Theme Music was “Rain Dance” by U.K. “New Age-Progressive” (now there’s a problematic genre name for you!) band Adiemus and trans-genreal musician Karl Jenkins. From the eerie rain sticks at the outset to its ambiguous percussion groove, the quasi-ethnic lyric (which is entirely instrumental, and means nothing in any language, despite the implication of some further ethnic identity) the celtic-sounding flute, symphonic brass section and then the rest of the London Philharmonic, the piece thwarts genre detection, or at least tends to lead you away whenever you think you ‘have it’. The band name “Adiemus”, by the way, is not actual Latin - it too is made up. As far as we can confirm, only Karl Jenkins actually exists (and many would debate even this...).
GENRE IMPLOSION PLAYLISTS
N.B. Weekly broadcast slots not listed represent rebroadcasts of earlier shows.
Wed 9 November 2005 - SHOW I: INTRODUCTIONS
Introductions often sound very different than the main body of a piece, and yet they’ve been crucial to attracting listeners into pieces of music since long before the sound byte made us just tend to change the channel. Throughout history they have tended to privilege this role, rather than immediately revealing the piece’s main content.
trad. arr RAWLINS CROSS: MacPherson’s Lament (3:59) (from ‘Celtic Instrumentals’) MIKE EVIN: Stay Gritty - 3:30 (from ‘I’ll bring the Stereo’) FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY: Grave-Allegro from String Symphony #2, op.36 (5:16) (Gewaundhaus Orchester Leipzig/Kurt Masur) RICHARD & ROBERT SHERMAN/HOLLY COLE (Trust in me) (the Holly Cole Collection, Vol.1) BUGGLES: Video killed the radio star (4:09) ----- Music 21:54
Wed 16 November 2005 - SHOW II: ENDINGS
Endings have presented challenges to composers and performers, who frequently resort to formulae and clichés – even non-endings like the ubiquitous fade of pop music just to ‘make it stop.’ Yet, scanning history, we see just as many examples which echo their beginnings and even make radical departures in their closing seconds.
MICHAEL BUBLE: Fever (3:52) JOSSY ABRAMOVITCH: Turkish Circus (4:41) (Quartetto Gelato) SAMUEL HONG/ANNA GUO: Autumn Moon on a Calm Lake (4:50) (Toronto Dunhuang Chamber Ensemble) CLAIRE LYNCH: Children of Abraham (2:56) MYCHAEL and JEFF DANNA: The Blood of Cu Chulainn (4:07) BUCK 65: Wicked and Weird (3:12) ----- Music 20:26
Wed 23 November 2005 - SHOW III: RHYTHM
Central to a piece of music’s life, rhythm is both a founding principle, a pervasive pattern of structure and a flexible parameter at the disposal of musicians and composers to make musical points, imbue energy, and finesse the mental connection between a piece and the body of the listener.
J.S. BACH: Prelude, BWV 846 from ‘Das Wohltemperierte Klavier’ (2:07) (Ton Koopman, harpsichord) AASHID HIMONS: Little Red Rooster (5:09) (The Mountain Soul Band, from ‘West Virginia Hills’) CHRISTÒBAL MORALES (c1500-1553): Sanctus (4:44) (Hilliard Ensemble, Jan Garbarek, Saxophone) DAN LOCKLAIR: Caput Serpentis from ‘Constellations’ (1:15) (George Ritchie, organ; Albert Rometo, percussion) FATALA (Guinean drumming ensemble: Yoky (2:03) MAURiCE RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloe: Opening to Scene I (excerpt 2:30) (Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal / Charles Dutoit) JOHN STAFFORD SMITH: Star Spangled Banner (excerpt 4:50) (Jimmi Hendrix, recorded live at Woodstock) ----- Music 22:08
Wed 30 November 2005 - SHOW IV: MUSICAL PICTURES
While the 19th century’s debates about the merit of depicting explicit pictures, ideas, emotions and stories using music is mostly an oddity of history, the parameter of depiction is an enormous area of study in the musical world, and the efforts of those who create it. Here are a wide range of examples.
SARAH McLACHLAN: Ice Cream (3:02) (from ‘Mirrored Ball’) SPACECRAFT: Hommaga to Gaia (conclusion of ‘Earthtime Tapestry’) (3:19) (Tony Gerber, Giles Reaves, John Rose and Diane Timmons) CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Quant j’ai ouy le tambourin, from Trois chansons de Charles d’Orlean (1:41) (Trillium Brass, from ‘Revecy’) CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD: The Bluebird (3:14) (John Laing Singers, from ‘My Love dwelt in a Northern Land’) ANTONIO VIVALDI/THOMAS WILBRANT: Leaves and Lutes from ‘Autumn/Winter’ (4:26) (from ‘The Electric V.’, a new perspective on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (1984)) HERBERT HOWELLS: The Polar Bear (from Snapshots, op.30) (2:19) (Maraget Fingerhut, piano) ROGER LEE: Don’t Forget It (5:03) (covered by the Polarity Bears on ‘Tip of the Iceberg’) ----- Music 23:04
Wed 7 December 2005 - SHOW V: WINTER
With winter firmly settling on GI’s listening area, this show took last week’s concept of depiction from the general to the specific by examining the place the idea of winter held in the creation of a wide range of musical selections.
JEANETTE GALLANT: Winter’s Moon (4:25) (from Winter’s Moon (1996)) Norwegian trad. arr ENSEMBLE POLARIS: Heiemo og Nøkken (3:55) (arrangement and performance by Ensemble Polaris on Not much is worse than a troll. ANTONIO VIVALDI: Allegro (I from ‘Winter’ in The Four Seasons) (3:45) (St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under Pinchas Zukerman) FRANZ SCHUBERT: Erstarrung (Numbness) (3:14) (Russell Braun and Carolyn Maul: Winterreise (Winter’s Journey), D.911) MIKE ELMER: English Winter White (3:22) (recorded by Lyves Daily in 1992) HUGH LECAINE: Dripsody (2:00) (from the Naxos “Introduction to Canadian Music”) Swedish trad. arr. HEDNINGARNA: Aivoton (3:35) (from Kaksi!) ----- Music 24:15
Wed 14 December 2005 - SHOW VI: COVER ME
Covering, quotation and parody date back to the very beginning of musical history, and represent a mysterious fusion of one piece of music, complete with associations and context, with the creativity, ideas and assumptions of later composer/performers and their time. Here we investigate the practice as manifest specifically in genres of the 20th century.
LEONARD COHEN: Hallelujah (4:00) (Patricia O’Callaghan and Robert Kortgaard from “Real Emotional Girl”) MAURICE RAVEL: Rigaudon (from Le Tombeau de Couperin) (3:11) (from Quartetto Gelato Travels the Orient Express”) AMERICAN TRAD. arr. JUNE TABOR: Git a long little doggie (2:49) (from “Tubular Dogs” by Calgary’s Mrs. Ackroyd Band) LEWIS/YOUNG/HENDERSON: Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (1:35) (Ronald Curtis at the Compton Theatre Organ, Paramount Organ Studios) DJ RON DON: Baby-Shining Star-Rude Bwoy Thug Life (4:57) (from “Dancehall 21 Mix”, Part II) FRENCH TRAD. arr. MILLS/DEDRICK: Angels we have heard on high (4:14) (Starscape Singers under Kenneth G. Mills from “The Song – the Heart of Christmas”) RODGERS & HART, arr. Aubrey Tadman & Band: I’d Like to Recognize The Tune (2:32) (originally from “Too many Girls”, arrangement on Tadman’s CD “Stay with me”) ----- Music 23:18
Wed 21 December 2005 - SHOW VII: TAKE ME THERE - The notion of Place in Music
Picking up once again the notion of depiction in music we survey various evocations of places familiar and exotic, and consider how composers have used music to take themselves and us to places real and imaginary.
OSCAR PETERSON: Place St-Henri (3:55) (Oscar Peterson Trio from “Canadiana Suite”) (unknown) Night of Naval Port (2:51) (from “Meeting at Yurt, Music Album of Century”, a Chinese light music collection) JOHN WILLIAMS: Mos Eisley Spaceport (2:16) (London Symphony Orchestra from the score to ”Star Wars: A New Hope”) ESTRELLA MORENTE: Pilgrims (Buleria) (3:23) (Spanish song from “My Songs and a Poem”) trad. arr. Paddy Moloney: Come by the Hills (4:15) (sung by Rita McNeil on “Fire in the Kitchen”) LENNON/McCARTNEY: Strawberry Fields (5:26) (from “The Beatles Gregorian Album (Liverpool Manuscripts) HATCH/PETULA CLARK: Downtown (3:04) (as employed on the soundtrack for ‘32 Short Films about Glenn Gould’) ----- Music 25:16
Wed 4 January 2006 - SHOW VIII: LEFTOVERS ON THE 11th DAY OF CHRISTMAS
With a bit of distance between us and the familiar musical avalanche of Christmas, we clean up a few leftovers … not a cynical survey of perhaps the music industry’s biggest bandwagon, but a look into some odd examples you may have missed.
Spiritual arr. ROLAND CARTER: Mary had a Baby (4:25) Nathaniel Dett Chorale / Melissa Davis, soloist; Joe Sealy, piano; Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, conductor trad. arr. HOWARD LOPEZ: Rocking King W. (4:10) (Music and Mistetoe by the Howard Lopez Orchestra, Christmas “gift” of a local Real Estate Agent) various, arr. PETER GRAHAM: Shining Star (3:26) (Canadian Staff Band of the Salvation Army on “Christmas Presence”) The BEACH BOYS: Little Saint Nick (1:57) (from ‘Ultimate Christmas’, 1963) Sarah HARMER: Greeting Card Aisle (4:32) (from “All of Our Names” (2000)) Charlélie COUTURE: Christmas Wrapping (5:16) (The Waitresses, from the album of the same name) ----- Music 23:46
Wed 11 January 2006 - SHOW IX: OSTINATO: TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?
If you think a simple, relentless (or as the Italian word says literally, ‘obstinate’) figure is slim as foundational material for a piece of music, you’re not alone… but how widely can you define the idea, and what have music’s creators and genres done with it?
J.S. BACH: Crucifixus from “Mass in B minor” (3:11) (The Sixteen under the direction of Harry Christophers) LORETTO REID & BRIAN TAHENY: Leon’s Waltz (3:51) (from “The Golden Dawn”) BELA BARTOK: Intermezzo from Concerto for Orchestra (4:02) (Chicago Symphony conducted by Pierre Boulez) LITTLE RICHARD: Good Golly Miss Molly (2:09) DICK KOOMANS: Basso Ostinato (7:07) (Paul Ayres at the organ of St. Peter’s Church, Ealing (London, UK)) SWOLLEN MEMBERS: Steppin Through (2:45) (from ‘Monsters in the Closet’) ----- Music 23:05
Wed 18 January 2006 - SHOW X: THE TROJAN HORSE - When a renegade instrument affects genre
Instrumentation is a powerful signifier for musical genre – but sometimes an unexpected ‘stowaway’ creeps in where you might not have been expecting it, affecting your perception of it, and often your genreal categorisation of it.
RAWLINS CROSS: O Neil’s March/The Haughs of Cromdale (3:14) (from ‘Celtic Instrumentals’) MODESTE MUSSORGSKY arr. Maurice Ravel: “The Old Castle” from ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ (4:57) (Dallas Symphony under the direction of Eduarto Mata) VITAL INFORMATION: Cranial #6 Mata Hari (2:47) (Steve Smith, Tom Coster, Baron Browne, Frak Gambale) from “Show ‘em where you live” JEAN-BAPTISTE LULLY arr. Kevin Mallon: Air pour les matelots jouans des Trompettes marines (2:24) (Aradia Ensemble from ‘Lully: Ballet Music for the Sun King)” WILLIS/BELOLO/MORALI: Y.M.C.A. (3:42) (The Village People, title track from Y.M.C.A. (1978)) ANON 14th Century arr. Hilliard Ensemble/Garbarek: Credo in unum Deum (4:34) (15th century mass movement with improvised saxophone descant, from “Officium (1994)”) J.S. BACH arr. Brouwer/Mulder/Elsen: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (3:43) (from KAJEM Play Bach) ----- Music 25:21
Wed 25 January 2006 - SHOW XI: COLOUR IN COMPOSITION
We explore conceptions of colour in compositions – whether you experience synaesthesia, the literal ‘sight’ of colours from listening to music or not, they are in the titles for the reason of giving you associations to attach to what you hear.
ANDREW GILPIN: Blue Grass and Green Sky (3:23) (Ebony & Ivory (Andrew Gilpin, keyboards and Fred Jacobowitz, clarinet)) arr. JOHN JACOB NILES: My Little Black Star (2:55) (Alan Gasser, tenor with Becca Whitla, piano) MIKE ELMER: Deep, Dark and Grey (3:22) (Lyves Daily: Mike Elmer, Brad Monk, Chris Ridout and Chris Dawes) JIMMIE RODGERS: Last Blue Yodel (Yodelin’ my way back home) (2:33) (from “Last Blue Yodel” (Women make a fool out of me, after his death of TB in 1933) ANDREA KUZMICH: Kooz Blooz (3:59) (Andrea Kuzmich with Mark Hundevad, drums; Dafyd Hughes, piano; Chris Banks, bass) LOUIS LOUIGUY/EDITH PIAF: La Vie en Rose from “Les Chemins de l’amour” (3:23) (Jean Stilwell with Robert Kortgaard, piano; Joaquin Valdepenas and Mark Promane, clarniets) STEVE MACKINNON: Red Cardinal from ‘Another Day’ (2:57) (Molly Johnson with Colleen Allen, clarinet; Andrew Craig, piano; Mike Downes, bass and Mark McLean, drums) ----- Music 22:32
Wed 8 February 2006 - SHOW XII: THE VOICE, Part I (the high, clear female voice)
We begin a four-part series tracking the four traditional voice ranges (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) as manifest in music throughout history with an examination of the pervasive high woman’s voice, with its associations of innocence, childhood and more.
MYCHAEL DANNA: The Love of Heaven (4:08) (Sara Clancy from ‘A Celtic Romance’) BEV & ROB FOSTER: A Dad like you, arr. Bev Foster and Carmon Barry (1:56) (Josee Foster, vocal with Bev Foster, piano and keyboards from ‘Trustpoints’) CLAUDIN DE SERMISY: Jousissance vous donneray, 1536 (2:08) (Meredith Hall, soprano, David Klausner, recorder and Terry McKenna, lute (Toronto Consort)) trad. American: Down to the River to Pray (2:53) (Alison Krauss with the choir of First Baptist Church, White House, TN) LEONARD COHEN: Hallelujah (4:00) (Patricia O’Callaghan, soprano with Robert Kortgaard, piano from ‘Real Emotional Girl’) trad. Armenian: Oor ess mayr eem (Where are you, O Mother) (3:14) (Isabel Bayrakdarian with orchestra conducted by Raffi Armenian) BJORK: Aurora (4:30) (from the ‘Vespertine’ album) ----- Music 22:49
Wed 15 February 2006 - SHOW XIII: THE VOICE Part II (the low, rich female voice)
Lower voices tend to connote age, authority and wisdom, but have also variously represented villainhood and other dangers, including sexual. In part two of our voice types series we find angels, mothers, whores and even supernatural figures encoded with the richness of the alto voice.
FELIX MENDELSSOHN: O Rest in the Lord (from ELIJAH, op.70) (2:53) (Patricia Bardon with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) trad. Columbian arr. Totó la Momposina (y sus tambores): Mapale (2:33) (from ‘La Candela Viva’ (Real World Records, 1993)) KOKO TAYLOR with MIGHTY JOE YOUNG: Voodoo Woman (3:47) (from the ‘Rough Guide to American Roots’ compilation (2003)) JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: ‘Wer Sünde tut, der ist vom Teufel’ from Cantata BWV 54 (2:57) (Andreas Scholl, countertenor/Orchestre du Collegium Vocale, Philippe Herreweghe, dir.) trad. Irish arr. LAURA SMITH/PADDY MALONE: My Bonnie lies over the ocean (4:21) (arrangement of a traditional air for the 1998 “Fire in the Kitchen” celtic compilation) BILLY AUSTIN/LOUIS JORDAN: Is you is or is you ain’t my baby? (4:57) (sung by Diana Krall and her band on ‘Only Trust your heart’ (1995)) ----- Music 21:28
Wed 22 February 2006 - SHOW XIV: THE VIOLIN
Taking a one-week break from voice types, a GI instrumental showcase: the Violin. Besides tracking many familiar archetypical incarnations of the violin we see a few unexpected appearances, such as the allure of the habanera and the exhilaration of fusion.
trad. Irish arr. LEAHY: Medley: Madame Bonaparte / Devil’s Dream / Mason’s Apron (4:14) (performed by Leahy on the 1998 ‘Fire in the Kitchen’ compilation) William LAWES: Fantazy from Consort Set a 5 in C major (2:22) (Rose Consort of Viols with Timothy Roberts, organ) Sportpalastwaltzer arr. S. Translateur: Wiener Praterleben (3:53) (Maastricht Salon Orchestra from “Serenata”) trad. American arr. Hartford: I am a Man of Constant Sorrow (2:34) (recorded for the soundtrack of “O Brother, Where art Thou” (2000)) Maurice RAVEL: Piece en forme de habanera (2:56) (Augustin Dumay, violin and Maria Joao Pires, Deutsche Grammophon 445-880-2) Jean-Luc PONTY: Question with no answer (3:28) The MAHAVISHRU ORCHESTRA: Open Country Joy (3:53) ----- Music 23:47
Wed 1 March 2006 - SHOW XV: THE VOICE, Part III (The low male voice)
Returning to voice types we look into various roles given the low male voice, from the traditional authority figures and villains of opera, to the related father figures of country music, the attitude-songs of punk and the overtly sexual Barry White…
W.A. MOZART: O Isis und Isiris (from Die Zauberflote) (2:50) (Paul Grindlay, bass-baritone; Kathleen van Mourik, piano) trad. (Carter Family) Will the Circle be Unbroken (4:19) (Ashid Himons with the Mountain Soul Band on ‘West Virginia Hills’) BARRY WHITE: I’m Gonna Love you just a little more, baby (3:59) (1994 Polygram release “All-Time Greatest Hits”) RAZ, DWA, TRZY: I Tak Warto Zyc (And it’s worth it to live like that) (4:14) (Polish band from Various Artists ‘Ethno Punk around the World with Attitude’...) RICHARD RODGERS & LORENZ HART: My Funny Valentine (2:29) (Frank Sinatra, recorded in Los Angeles in 1953 for ‘Songs for Young Lovers’) trad. arr. Ralf Hamm, Markus Staab, Claus Zundel: Tor-Cheney-Nahana (Winter Ceremony) (3:45) (Sacred Spirit from ‘Chants and Dances of the Native Americans’) ----- Music 21:36
Wed 8 March 2006 - SHOW XVI: THE VOICE, Part IV (The high male voice)
Completing our tetrad of voice types we survey the high male voice in its many incarnations, from the ambiguous countertenor as Holy Spirit in Bach’s cantatas through the ultra-heroics of opera, the androgyny of modern-era pop and interestingly, the appropriation of the high voice as technique within genres of low voice.
GIACOMO PUCCINI: Nessun Dorma from “Turandot” (3:06) (Andrea Bocelli, Moscow Radio Symphony/Vladimir Fedoseyev) J.S. BACH: Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn (2:18) (from ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV 4, Peter Schreier, Bach-Ensemble/Helmuth Rilling) YOUSOU N’DOUR: Medina (3:21) (from Yousou N’Dour - contemporary Sengalese band) J. LIEBER and M. STROLLER: Yakety Yak (1:48) (from ‘The Coasters’, 1958) SHAWN DESMAN: Shook (3:32) (from ‘Shawn Desman’, 2002) NICKELBACK: Someday (3:27) (from ‘The Long Road’ album, 2003) DEXY’s MIDNIGHT RUNNERS: Come on Eileen (4:06) (from 1982) ----- Music 21:38
Wed 22 March 2006 - SHOW XVII: SMALL ENSEMBLES, Part I (the solo performer)
A series begins today examining small ensembles according to number of performers, beginning with the smallest possible ensemble – the soloist. From ancient chant to modern classical and popular musics the soloist connotes not just solitude, but an implied intimacy between the listener and the performer, even when that performer sits far away at the organ console.
Ambrosian Chant: Omnes Patriarchae (1:24) (Manuela Schenale, the In dulci jubilo singers under Albert Turco) American Southern traditional: O Death (3:21) (performed by Mountain Gospel artist Ralph Stanley) trad. Chinese: Flowers on the Brocade (2:08) (performed by Ting Hong, Zheng (Toronto Dunhuang Ensemble)) trad. Venezualan: Waltz (1:27) (performed by Mike Whitla, guitar) JOHN BUCKLEY: First movement from “Sonata for Solo Horn” (3:45) (performer unknown, 1995 release of the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland) J.S. BACH: Prelude & Fugue, E, BWV 854 (2:42) (performed by Ton Koopman, harpsichord, 1983) BILLY JOEL: Air (Dublinesque) (3:46) (performed by Richard Joo, 2001) BOELLMANN: Toccata (Suite Gothique) (3:59) (Keith S. Toth at the organ of Brick Presbyterian Church, New York) ----- Music 22:32
Wed 29 March 2006 - SHOW XVIII: SMALL ENSEMBLES, Part II (the duo)
In contrast to his or her implied intimacy with the solo performer, the listener becomes spectator/voyeur of this intimacy in others when a second performer is added. As an added dimension we begin to see hierarchical relationships such as that of soloist/accompanist, leader/sideman, composer/collaborator that affect our understanding and reception of music.
trad. Latvian arr. AURI: Es Redezju Jurina (1:40) (from ‘Beyond the River’, 1993) MAURICE RAVEL: Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Faure (2:23) (Augustin Duamy, violin, Maria Joao Pires, piano) MUDDY WATERS: I Feel like Going Home (3:07) (from ‘Country Blues’) JOHN LAING: Christopher Smart from ‘Three Profiles’ (1:24) (text by John Ferns; Janet Obermeyer, soprano; John Laing, piano) MYRON ROBERTS: Dialogue from ‘Five for Organ and Marimba’ (2:25) (George Ritchie, organ; Albert Rometo, percussionist) GIUSEPPE VERDI arr. Alfred Lebeau: Dies Irae (Messa da Requiem) (2:25) (Matteo Galli, Harmonium; Francesco Attesti, piano) JOHN B. SEBASTIAN: I had a dream (2:41) (recorded live at Woodstock, 1969) LATOUCHE/MOROSO: A Lazy Afternoon (3:43) (Guido Basso, flugelhorn; Doug Riley, Hammond C3 organ) -----Music 21:54
Wed 5 April 2006 - SHOW XIX: SMALL ENSEMBLES, Part III (the trio)
The trio is stuck somewhere betwixt and between the simplicity and intimacy of smaller groups and the power, scope and complexity of larger groups: yet it defines genres of informal choral singing, jazz and folk, and further disturbs notions of hierarchy which seemed so simple in the duo…
JOE LIGGINS: The Honey Dripper (2:24) (Oscar Peterson Trio (with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen) from ‘Night Train’ (1962)) JOHN ISHAM: When Celia was Learning on the Spinet (2:17) (from ‘Alchemy’ by the MadriGals: Trish O’Reilley, Abby Zotz, Denise Norman) J.S. BACH: Canonus Perpetuus from ‘Musikalisches Opfer’ (2:36) (Janet See, flute; John Holloway, violin; Japp ter Linden, ‘cello; Davitt Moroney, harpsichord) JOSE MIGUEL MARQUEZ and ROBERTO MARQUEZ: Chilhuanos (2:31) (the Chilean folk trio ‘Illapu’ on guitar, harp and flute) KYP HARNESS: Houdini in Reverse (2:58) (Kyp Harness, Dave Pedliham, Dale Morningstar guitar, bass, drums, and all singing vocals) JIMMIE RODGERS: Standing on the Corner (Blue Yodel #9) (2:39) (Jimmie Rodgers with Lillian Rodgers, piano; Louis Armstrong, trumpet) HOSSAM RAMZY: Fallahi (2:58) (Egyptian drumming trio) IGOR STRAVINSKY, arr Timporg Trio: Marsch, Walzer & Polka (4:05) (Timporg Trio: Markus Kuhnis & Wolfgang Sieber, organ duo; Christoph Kobelt, percussion) ----- Music 22:48
Wed 12 April 2006 - SHOW XX: THE PIANO
Another GI instrumental showcase, Show 20 tackles (or more realistically, begins to tackle) the piano, which despite its relative youth has perhaps the largest repertoire and cross-genreal profile in the world. Equally at home in classical and popular musics it bridges one of the notoriously unbridgeable genreal divides of the 20th century.
BILLY JOEL: Waltz #3 “For Lola” (3:28) (Richard Joo, piano from “Fantasies and Delusions’, 2001) GERSHWIN arr Marshall: Improvisation on “Fascinating Rhythm” (2:28) (Wayne Marshall: ‘A Gershwin Songbook’) SCHOENBERG: Leicht, zart from Six Little Pieces for Piano, op.19 (1:26) (Glenn Gould, piano (as featured in Francois Girard’s ‘32 Short Films about Glenn Gould’) FRANCIS POULENC: Prelude (Modere) from Sonata for Piano four hands (2:38) (John & Anne-Marie Egan “Two pianos at the Twin Towers, St. Joseph’s College, Rensselaer, Indiana) CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS: Allegro Scherzando from Concerto #2 in G minor, Op.22 (6:02) (Idil Biret, piano; London Philhramonia Orchestra under James Loughran) DOUG RILEY: Peace Dance (6:22) (Doug Riley on ‘Freedom’ (Duke Street)) ----- Music 22:24
Wed 19 April 2006 - SHOW XXI: SMALL ENSEMBLES, Part IV (the quartet)
Moving up to four performers, the quartet conveys to both performers and listeners the true sense of a group, and broadens the scope to the point of offering multiple choices for melody/accompaniment, harmonic/soloistic, and corresponding greater textural possibilities. It also defines a number of new ensemble types: the string quartet, the basic rock ‘n roll band to name two.
KENNETH RICHARD: Arc de Triomphe Two Step (3:16) (performed by Beausoleil (violin, accordian, guitar, autoharp)) PENNIMAN, BLACKWELL, LABOSTRIE: Tutti Frutti (2:24) (performed by Little Richard, 1955) MAURICE RAVEL: Assez vif: tres rythme (from String Quartet in F) (6:08) (performed by the Britten String Quartet) ANON.(Codex Calixtinus) Benedicamus trope: Vox nostra resonat (1:35) (performed by Anonymous 4 on ‘Miracles of Santiago’) FRITZ KREISLER arr. Solomon: Tambourin Chinois (‘Chinese Drum’) (4:14) (performed by Quartetto Gelato on ‘Quartetto Gelato Travels the Orient Express’) STEVE SMITH, TOM COSTER, BARON BROWNE: Time Tunnel (5:37) (performed by Vital Information (above plus Frank Gambale) on “Come on In”) ----- Music 22:52
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