Chekhov's Mistress
Music Meme
1. The person who passed the baton to you.
Anne, who probably thinks I’m too serious to answer questions like this.
2. Total volume of music files on your computer.
Just under 20gb, most of which are my own CDs imported in Apple’s Lossless format (i.e. big file sizes account for those 20gb more than a lot of music). I’m slowly putting all of my CDs on the computer because, like so many things, now that I can listen to music (and playlists – like the cassette mixes I used to make) merely by pushing a button I can hardly force myself to pick up a CD and put it in the player.
3. The title and artist of the last CD you bought.
Well, technically, I just downloaded “Julie Andrews Selects Her Favorite Disney Songs” Artists: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Bruce Reitherman & Phil Edwards, Peggy Lee, Angela Landsbury, etc.
I like to listen to a lot of types of music, but I’ve been surprised at how much I enjoy children’s music now that I’m reliving my childhood – ain’t that why we have babies? My wife was a first grade teacher and a pianist, so I get a lot of exposure to this stuff.
The last CD I bought was “The Canticle of the Sun” composed by Sofia Gubaidulina. Artists: Pieter Wispelwey (cello), the Prometheus Ensemble, An Raskin (bajan) and the Collegium Vocal Gent.
Gubaidulina is a Russian composer in her late 70s who wrote one of my favorite pieces of music, Offertorium. Some of her music is intolerable, but its worth sifting through her work, because other pieces are really sublime (I know that “sublime” has lost its meaning since people started using it to characterize desserts and such, but if you listen to Gubaidulina’s music, you will believe me when I say it is just that).
4. Song playing at the moment of writing.
La Sitiera from the album “Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo” by Omara Portuondo.
Portuondo is one of the Cuban artists to come out of the Buena Vista Social Club, which I’ve been a big fan of since the documentary about Ry Cooder’s discovery of these really talented Castro-obscured musicians. Sadly, one of them, Compay Segundo, died last year. He was in his nineties and said in the film that he had been smoking cigars since he was 5.
5. Five songs you have been listening to of late
(or all-time favorites, or particularly personally meaningful songs)
1) Entre Dos Aguas from the album “Entre Dos Aguas” by Paco De Lucía (actually the whole album and not just that song)
I bought this CD in Barcelona and listened to it on my headphones while flying in a fairly low flying plane over Spain, watching the countryside go by. So for that “Entre Dos Aguas” is evocative of that country, but it’s also plain and simple great guitar playing where the notes matter. Paco is probably the best Flamenco guitarist living today and certainly one of the best guitarists in the world. I saw him perform a few years ago at the Beacon Theater and I was amazed at how much energy someone could generate sitting in a chair, playing the guitar.
2) Pierre from the album “Really Rosie” by Carole King
Because I care.
3) That’s Amore by Dean Martin
Because when my 18th month-old hears even a note or two of this song, he comes running up to me, face beaming, arms in the air to dance around the house.
4)
“Bach Cello Suites” by Casals, Pablo
“Bach: Art of the Fugue” by Juilliard String Quartet – Robert Mann, Joel Smirnoff, Samuel Rhodes, Joel Krosnick, Walter Trampler
“Bach: Morimur” by The Hilliard Ensemble/Christopher Poppen/J. S. Bach
“Bach: Matthäus-Passion” by Concentus Musicus/Harnoncourt
“Bach: Partitas” by Richard Goode
“Bach/Webern: Ricercar” by Christoph Poppen, Hilliard Ensemble, Münchener Kammerorchester
I have a thing for Bach. When I write, his is the most inspiring music I can possibly imagine listening to. And when I’m trying to write is when I most fervently listen to serious music – Bach’s music pulls me in so deep within myself that I let go of the rest of the world and into that place where I can touch my very nerve endings.
[Incidentally, the music from the Simon and Garfunkel song American Tune was drawn directly from one of the choral pieces in Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion – it’s uncanny in some way to hear Bach’s music in the familiar realm of pop.]
Also, in that same vain as Bach, is this recording (which I’m one of the few people in the world to possess because it hasn’t been released):
“Haydn: Seven Last Words of Christ, w/Poetry by Mark Strand” by The Brentano Quartet
My Brother-in-Choice commissioned secular poetry from Mark Strand to accompany Haydn’s music, which is arranged here for a string quartet. Each, the music and the poetry, is beautiful in its own right, but the two together are profound.
5) A Miner’s Life from the album “The Hour Before Dawn” by Solas
Solas is an Irish band that plays a combination of Irish folk music, pop songs and traditional reels. The music is light, but they play it very seriously. “The Hour Before Dawn,” by the way, is the title of my favorite Yeats poem.
6) Anne had six, so I guess I can too.
It was a lonely day in Selma, Alabama / Freedom from the album “Blues & Politics” by The Mingus Big Band
Musically speaking, Jazz is my first love, and Mingus’s music is what Jazz is all about to me, with a complex pattern of harmony foiled by dissonance and rhythm taking unexpected turns. The Mingus Big Band keeps Mingus’s music alive and they play in a variety of formations. Even though the personnel rotates, they are always polished and they manage to come up with a lot of great arrangements. This particular album mixes some narrative from Mingus’s old concerts with some of his greatest pieces. If you are not moved by this music, you just aren’t listening.
6. The five people to whom you will ‘pass the musical baton.
It seems like I’ve seen this everywhere, so I’m going to leave it for now, but if you haven’t been handed this baton, consider yourself passed to.
Well, Anne, I did it. As it turns out, I was not too serious to answer the questions, but too serious to stop. Now I’m going to have to start a music blog.
comments
Thanks, Bud. We love Pierre on the Scholastic video--and I’m glad to have the lovely voice identified. We spend a lot of time discussing the fact that the lion doesn’t plan to eat any of us.
Anyway, you made my day. Great music, too. Cheers.
– Anne (05/26 at 11:25 AM)
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