QuaranTunes
Because What Else Do You Have Going On?
5 Tunes Everyday to listen to between Episodes of The Crown
Day 8: March 25 - One Daily Unit of Exercise
Since we are allowed only one unit of exercise a day, I’ve compiled some music about going for a little walk. From Olivier Messiaen (1st artist to appear twice!) to Olivia Newton-John, let’s get musical!….(musical)
Olivier Messiaen - Catalogue d’oiseaux/Book 5: 8. L’alouette calandrelle
French composer Olivier Messiaen (Proud first repeat offender on QuaranTunes) loved birdsong. He used to walk around and transcribe birds’ songs and then use them in his compositions. His 1958 Catalogue d’Oiseaux brings that love into a singular focus. A gift for his second wife, a virtuoso pianist, the pieces here actual represent French provinces and the titles and some main materials are from birds which are prominent in the region. Into the music, Messiaen also integrates
…its landscape, the hours of day and night that change this landscape, are also present, with their colors, their temperatures, the magic of their perfumes…
This piece, L’Alouette Calandrelle, uses the song of the Greater Short-Toed Lark (heard here). Opening chords in lower registers of the piano are punctuated by birdcalls in the upper registers which then expands into a dialogic fantasy. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, in the recording on the playlist, works both the brilliant attack of the piano and the sustain to bring out the playful, semi-antiphonal interplay while keeping the transcendence and pianism of the piece alive.
Hank Williams - Where the Old Red River Flows
Zeus of the country pantheon, Hank Williams was a contemporary of Messiaen, however American and not at all aware of Messiaen. But he was as lovely and talented as Messiaen, if differently so. On this cut of Jimmie Davis’ Where the Old Red River Flows, Williams yodels happily as he dreams from the bright lights of New York of his ‘farm in Louisiana where the ‘ol Red River flows.” It’s an endearing track which has some of the best parts of Williams: his expressive yodels, tasteful early electric guitar work, his characteristic drawl.
William Brittelle - The Shimmering Desert
William Brittelle is one of my favorite living composers. He has an entirely unique ability to bend and blend styles into stunning, surprising, and often moving collages. The Shimmering Desert comes from a soundtrack Roomful of Teeth, Glenn Kotche, and Jeffrey Zeigler did for a film about the Colorado River, released as an album, The Colorado. This track samples old advertisements for the Salton Sea, the oldest lake in California situated at the lowest part of the Colorado and shrinking due to climate change. Brittelle finnesses the choir and triggered electronics into a gorgeous and typically brilliant series of choral/digital chordal gestures.
Natasha Barrett - Sound Exposure in Peru: Cusco
British-Norwegian composer and sound artist Natasha Barrett is keenly interested in communicating spaces. Her works attempt to capture the experienced and lived space. Sound Exposure in Peru is no different. Rather than being just straight soundwalks or field recordings, Barrett sought to show the experience of hearing new environments for the first time, where you attention is pulled in new directions constantly. She likens these to audio postcards rather than field recordings. Perhaps a curated, idealized, or manipulated version of a place.
Olivia Newton-John - Physical
Look, we need to get our daily unit of exercise. If you can’t make it outside, you can always ‘meet the government recommendations’ (as the kids say) inside…
Day 7: March 24 - Foggy old Lockdown Town
London is officially in lockdown for three weeks. That means THREE MORE WEEKS OF OF QUARANTUNES!!! (alsoplsbesafeandhealthyy’all)
Ralph Vaughan Williams - A London Symphony
Premiered in 1914, this was Vaughan Williams’ first proper orchestral symphony (the first symphony, A Sea Symphony, had chorus). While not programmatic, it pictorializes Vaughan Williams’ London, written from his attic studio in Chelsea overlooking the Thames. The opening is simply one of the most divine and touching slow openings in music, imho. Vaughan Williams then jumps straight into the hustle and bustle of the City. The rest of the movement reads to me as a series of episodes of London life. The entire piece is meticulously orchestrated. He sharply revised it after the War, cutting over twenty minutes, but today’s track is the original 1913 version. Vaughan Williams and his estate refused to let this version be performed for many years until this recording, which caused a reappraisal of the original version. Played here by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Richard Hickox.
The Rakes - 22 Grand Job
The lead single from their 2005 debut album Capture/Release, 22 Grand Job is by far the most relatable track on here. Upbeat and classic British indie punk-rock, it’s basically just that sort of unmotivated malaise that comes with your first job and how it’s not great, but it’ll do. Proper tune with a great lick in it as well. Currently, I would really appreciate a 26 grand job, as thats the cut-off salary the home office has set for us immigrants. But also any money through this COVID mess.
David Bowie - The London Boys
A quirky little ballad about a young lad spiralling into drugs after moving to London at seventeen. It builds through some wandering harmonies into a series of key changes as this young lad’s life becomes unbearable. Also, some delightfully tasty lil brass countermelodies.
Noel Coward - London Pride
Composed during the Blitz when Coward was sitting in Paddington Station watching Londoners going about their days during the peak of German aggression. Jaunty and lilting, this little tune winds through scenes of London life during the War with a very charming hope, brought out by bright and clean orchestration, punctuated only by low piano, Coward acknowledging musically the struggle they were all in.
Every Blitz
Your resistance
Toughening,
From the Ritz
To the Anchor and Crown,
Nothing ever could override
The pride of London Town.
LV (Feat. Joshua Idehen) - Northern Line
This track is just Joshua Idehen asking what do you know about [tube stop] then rhyming how angry or horny he is at various stops on the Northern Line. It slaps so properly hard, it had to be included. Also, my main tube line, so represent.
Best line:
What do you know about Moorgate?
I don’t know anything about Moorgate…
[BONUS] Young Tiger - I Was There (At the Coronation)
Trinidian Calypso singer Young Tiger came to England on board a Norwegian tanker at 20, but only after stopping through Australia and landing in Scotland. This song was set to broadcast the same day as Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation. As he clearly couldn’t have written and recorded this if he had been at the coronation, the Queen’s aides had sent him a secret dispatch detailing what the Queen would be wearing so he could include it in his song. This speaks in a really interesting way as to how the Monarchy was seeking inclusivity at a time of racial strife, at least in the US. (Almost certainly there are nuances and caveats to this, but in the US that sort of gesture would have been very large and controversial.)
Day 6: March 23 - When life gives you lemons, but no toilet paper…
If you’re like me, you’re carefully rationing your toilet paper. But what will you do when it goes out? These musicians don’t have the answers to that, but they know what to do with all those extra anvils. It’s music with weird instruments today!
Elisha Denburg - Fisher Price Laugh & Learn fun with Friends Musical Table
Toy Piano Composers are a Toronto-based collective of composers who engage audiences with creative and unusual concert programs. Fisher Price Laugh & Learn, by TPC member Elisha Denburg, is the opening track of their only album to date, a collection of their favorite chamber pieces from the 120+ pieces they’ve premiered. Delightfully playful, clever, and surprisingly touching, this track does what it says on the tin: learns fun with friends! Denburg’s score weaves a live Fisher-Price toy into colorful and tight chamber writing full of surprises, cadential twists, and a wonky Mozart quote. Played here by the Toy Piano Composers.
David Lang - Anvil Chorus
American composer David Lang has thought to prepare us for when we have to rebuild after this is all over. His solo percussion work, Anvil Chorus, took inspiration from the songs medieval blacksmiths used to coordinate hammer strikes when working on a single piece metal. A very steady, constant internal pulse was needed to keep the blacksmiths from wacking each other with their giant hammers and a melody helped them to keep that pulse The percussion sources their own ‘junk-metals’: resonant ones to provide the ‘melody’ and non-resonant ones to provide ‘accompaniment.” The percussionist has to be all of the blacksmiths at once, though they enter through the piece, all playing at different speeds, giving a cyclic and repetitive character to a gradual accumulation. Played here by Steven Schick.
Bjork - Solstice
Icelandic artist-extraordinaire Bjork commissioned the creation of a host of new instruments for her 2012 album, Biophilia, which examined natural cycles and technology. Solstices is based on the movement of the planets and heavenly bodies. This is realized by large, cylindrical pendulums with strings like a harp. The pendulum are activated by the Earth’s gravity and rotate so a plectrum can pluck different strings as the pendulums swing. Here is a video of Bjork performing live with them in Paris. Related, I met the artist who made the pendulums, Andy Cavatorta, when he came to my undergrad to speak. Him and his studio make some amazing instruments which you should check out. (David Lang also came to speak about his Songs after Solomon!)
Luigi Russolo - Awakening of a City
Early 20th-century Italian painter, composer, and instrument Luigi Russolo wished to bring real world, industrial sounds into the music hall. His 1913 manifesto, The Art of Noises, sought a liberation from pitch-centered music-making. To accomplish this, he created an arsenal of noise-machines, called intonarumori. These intonarumori mimicked noises from the real world which Russolo would then compose for as if they were traditional instruments. Awakening of a City uses eight of these noise-machines: howlers, roarers, cracklers, rubbers, bursters, hummers, gurglers, and whispers. Original recording by Luigi’s brother, Antonio, of Luigi Russolo playing hi intonarumori.
Patrick Watson - Beijing
Canadian (so many Canadians today!) musician (and the ensemble he fronts under the same name) are known for their experimental music. Here, Watson plays a bicycle in the backbeat of this track about waking up in someone else’s life in in Beijing. Definitely in the inde-rock tradition, but with a unique color and quirkiness. (Also, unintended connection between Russolo’s Awakening of a City and Beijing being about waking up in a strange city! I love when these threads appear!)
Day 5: March 22nd - Does All This Day Drinking Make Me A Lush?
THIS PLAYLIST BEGINS LOUD! WATCH YOUR VOLUME LEVEL!
Today, we look at some tracks with super lush production or orchestration!
Gojira - Mouth of Kala
French metal band Gojira first got widespread attention for a concept album about whales. Mouth of Kala comes from their 2012 album L’Enfant Sauvage, based on the true story of a feral child from the late 18th-century. This track is here because, mostly, Opeth’s tracks were too long. Also, beyond the obvious metal layering the crash cymbal drummer Mario Duplantier uses is basically and the ghost note in the opening riff are basically white noise. These give the track a spectral lushness, an incredibly unfocused, but not gritty or abrasive sound with low and high materials fused by these white noise elements. Also, just bangs.
Kaija Saariaho - Notes On Light: III. Awakening
Saariaho’s cello concerto, Notes on Light, was one of my earliest loves. Saariaho has discussed how her particular musical language came from her time at IRCAM studying the timbre of the cello. This work showcases both her love of the instrument and her ability to fill out a spectrum. Saariaho shares a commonality with Gojira before: they both fuse and/or catalyze the gaps in their spectrum with noise elements. Gojira with distortion and cymbals and Saariaho here in the articulation of the cello. More than just a one-trick spectral pony, Saariaho brings out her full lyricism and that harmonic sense which is like trying to hold water in your hands. Played here by Anssi Karttunnen and the Orchestre de Paris under Christophe Eschenbach.
Alvin Lucier - Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra
Amazingly beautiful things come from the simplest sources. In Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra, French-Canadian composer Alvin Lucier wrangles prismatic light out a simple triangle. The score instructs the musician to strike an amplified triangle and change one parameter of their technique (where they strike, how muted, where they mute, etc…) over 30 seconds. The result is a flood of bright, rich, overtone content. An absolutely stunning piece. Played here by Hakon Stene.
Robert Carver - O Bone Jesu a 19
16th-century Scottish composer Robert Carver was almost lost to us. A Catholic during the Reformation, his music was destroyed, cut up, and burned by religious zealots. There is a tall tale that a fragment of this piece, O Bone Jesu for 19 voices, was found centuries later as the inner lining of a book in a library and inspired someone to seek all these out and assemble them. The truth of that story may be in question, but the beauty of the music is not. Carver clearly understood voices, so even in the richest moments (which are many and glorious!), the moving inner voices ring out of the texture. A crystalline statement of profound, persecuted faith. Performed here by The Sixteen.
Buddy Rich - Nutville
Oh man, what a tune! I’ve included it because those brass voicings are TASTY. Also, it slaps. Buddy Rich was one of the few drummers whose name was so known he could front a band. From his 1973 album, Roar of ‘74.
Day 4: March 21st - I have no reason to leave my bedroom, do I?
Today’s playlist is all about the home, but comes from all over. From John Mayer to French salon music, London laptop to the Chinese Guqin.
John Mayer - 3x5
From his debut album, 3x5 a rather good take on the classic oh-I’m-a-touring-musician-and-life-is-hard-look-at-my-struggle song. It has the inventive guitar and delightful wordplay that characterized early John Mayer, before the blues-god/melancholic-hollywood personas took over.
Cecile Chaminade - Les Sylvains, Op. 60
An early 20th-century French composer, Cecile Chaminade was the first woman to receive the prestigious Legion of Honour from the French government. Her music, however, received the classic misogyny one-two: her chamber music was praised for it’s feminity (it’s virtousic af) and her large works were criticized for being ‘too masculine,’ which means she wrote a forte on some brass or something. However, I did choose Les Sylvians because it is tuneful and tasteful, though with many hidden techniques and tricks in the details which never loses touch with the architecture of the work. Much of her other works are confident and extraverted, delightfully so. This album is supposedly of her playing, but the quality is so nice I suspect, at best, this is from a piano roll she may have made which some boffins brought into this century for our enjoyment. Notice, though, the incredible touch and dexterity in her flourishes.
Traditional (Shuishan Yu) - Airs of the Fifteen States: Odes of Yong (Amid the Mulberries)
The guqin is a Chinese zither, sort of a plucked tabletop guitar. It has come up in my personal research, but I am not an expert! Articles I’ve read suggest that much music-making in early China, especially among the elites, was aimed at cultivating the inner-wellness of the performer and not necessarily for performing for others. Confucian thought sought to refine the sound after the notes as a parallel to the inner-self of the musician. This recordings highlights that well: notice the sounds of the fingers sliding along the strings, nuances in vibrato, and the changes in articulation. Played here by Shuishan Yu
James Blake - Unluck
James Blake began in a London bedroom with just his laptop and some mics. Unluck, from his self-titled debut in 2011, is a gem of the bedroom producer genre. Autotune-y vocals and glitchy, laidback back beats provide ample space for Blake to croon nonsense, climaxing with large brassy synths and heavy trem. Bedroom banger. (I could listen to that hi-hat track alone for hours.)
Nick Drake - From The Morning
The final track of his final studio album, British singer-songwriter Nick Drake would soon turn inward and become a recluse at his parents’ in Tanworth-in-Arden. This song, however, is a hopeful, peaceful images of growth, recession, and return. I can’t help but to focus on the bass pattern, which is bouncy and full of life, supporting Drakes confident fingerstyle but timid, intimate singing.
EXTRA: An Original recording of Cecile Chaminade playing Les Sylvains
Day 3: March 20th - Socially Distant Playdates
Even if you’re stuck inside during a pandemic, everyone needs fun! Today’s playlist is all about play! From Prince and Scandinavia, today’s music inspires us to grab some Legos (and something more illicit in Bob Dylan’s case) and break out our inner kid!
Prince - Play in the Sunshine
This songs just absolutely bangs in the happiest of way. Upbeat, energetic, and virtuosic, Prince is at top form in playful back-and-forths between him and his backing band, leading to some zesty solos. From his overtly-political 1987 album Sign ‘O The Times, this track follows a song about the drug crisis, impending nuclear war, and the ever present fears of apocalypse which ran through the Cold War. Sunshine, through it’s infectious joy, soothes those anxieties. Sunshine would have been a political statement itself to Prince, who abstained from drugs and alcohol and sought more natural sources of joy and ecstasy.
Andrew Norman - A Companion Guide To rome: Benedetto
Written during his tenure as a fellow at the American Academy in Rome, The Companion Guide to Rome, a suite for string trio was inspired by Norman’s visits to cathedrals around Rome. This movement features what makes Norman so appealing and successful: hard cuts between flashes of tight rhythms with simple interval content. It’s playful and brilliant and beautiful.
Christian Winther Christiansen - Four Hyper Realistic Songs: Movement 4
I love Christian Winther Christiansen. So much. So very much. Like Norman, Danish composer Christiansen plays (pun intended) with simple materials and tight, characterful rhythms. However, where Norman is loud and with attention of a 5-year old in a McDonalds playpen (in a good way), Christiansen sticks with one thing that is obscured until the very faintest reveal, which feels both intimate and cataclysmic. The reveal here is one his most delightful and makes me so stupidly happy each time.
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen - Plateaux : IX. En Majeur
Another Dane, but from an earlier generation, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen is the class clown of twentieth-century classical (niche title there). This is the final movement of his piano concerto, a suite of character pieces like all the others today. Plateaux, however, is clever and cheeky in that it ostensibly culminates in a movement titled Composition. But that is not the actual end. Instead, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen breaks out this sudden fantasy on a small section of Mozart. Jokes are very, very niche in classical music.
Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
At the height of his fame in 1967, Bob Dylan showed up to a studio in Nashville full of local session musicians and asked, “So, what do you guys do for fun?” A not insignificant amount of drugs and alcohol later, they recorded this drunk and stoned tune with the drummer so out of it, he played on the floor, unable to stand, hitting the bass drum with a stick.
DAy 2: March 19th - Home Snugs ‘n Harmony
Hope you are all home, healthy, and cozy! Today’s works focus on interesting harmonies, some surprising, some simply lovely. Today’s artists come from all over: Elizabethan Britain, Post-War France, Mid-Century America, and 2018 Japan.
William Lawes - Viol Consort no. 8 for 6 Viols in F Major
Elizabethan-era composer William Lawes wrote some wacky harmonies for the early 1600s and the prolongation of the final cadence here is up there. After some jaunty imitations, the music suddenly cuts and we land on an augmented dominant which resolves to the MINOR TONIC Y'ALL and winds it's way back to the major tonic. Maybe not the most adventurous thing ever, but wacky nonetheless.
Ichika Aoba - テリフリアメ The Rain From Light And Shadow
Japanese singer-songwriter, commercial jingle writer, and installation artist Ichika Aoba is new to me (only learned about the jingles and installations today) but her music is beautiful, subtle, and complex. She's got a gorgeous, breathy voice with a high register that reminds me of John Luther Adams' The Wind In High Places or when the reverb in the shower makes everything you sing sound like Enya. She's also a cracking guitarist.
Junior Wells - Little by Little (I'm Losing You)
Just a great tune.
Olivier Messiaen - Visions de l'Amen - I: Amen de la Creation
Composed in 1943, only 8 years after French organist and composer Olivier Messiaen had been liberated from his concentration camp, Visions de l’Amen is simply stunningly gorgeous. The opening movement of work for two pianos, harmonies cycle around building in intensity with each passage. The ‘creation’ theme, which is present throughout the suite, rises from the bass register into glorious chords, a la Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto, giving actual life.
Thelonious Monk Septet - Abide With Me
One of my favorite hymns, it contains one of my favorite voice leading cliches: a #4-5 in the top voice which is immediately met with a natural 4-3 in the bass (Also in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no 30 in E Major, op. 109). Thelonius Monk and co here do a TASTY version with some lovely movements in the inner voices.
Day 1: March 18th - Quotes, Puns, and cool String stuff by (mostly) Americans
David Darling and the Wulu Bunuun - Ku-Isa Tama Laug
I usually pull this out when Spring starts. So, although we’re bunkered down anticipating I Am Legend II, it’s lovely outside right now. David Darling recorded this with people of the Bunuun tribe in the mountains of Southern Taiwan. There is a “Music of Man” album with music of INDIGENOUS Taiwanese peoples which is well worth a look (but they took it off Spotify).
Gabriella Smith - Carrot Revolution
Oh man this slaps. American composer Gabriella Smith works every groove until there’s nothing left to groove (not sure what that means, but it’s a compliment). Her soundworld is American (5ths bebe), but her rhythmic drive and creative string techniques refresh the familiar harmonic world. Plus, there’s a Baba O’Riley quote in there and a great tempo markings: ‘Ecstatic, raucous, off-kilter Perotin sung by rough, nasal folk voices’ (the best tempo marking I’ve seen since David Rakowski’s ‘WTF’ in his Piano Concerto no 2). Played here by the Aizuri Quartet.
Charles Ives - Piano Trio - II: TSIAJ
An early Ives work from just after he graduated from Yale, his Piano Trio reflects back on his college years. Each movement is embryonic Ives, complex multi-layered sounds and polytonality. The second movement TSIAJ (“This Scherzo is a joke”) is the most IVesian of the piece: quotes, jokes, hard cuts, and off-kilter tonalities. Played here by Trio Animae.
Harrison Birtwistle - The Woman and the Hare
A friend referred me to this piece yesterday and have had a listen through, so I don’t have much insight to offer, especially as I am only just getting to know Birtwistle in general. What is appealing to me is Birtwistle’s use of spoken and sung text and the way he creates and interpolates between musical materials (Keeping up the puns, the narrator and singer have different musical speeds…because tortoise and hare…). This is a complex piece for further study for myself, but it is absolutely a work worth you listening to. That is apparent even after just one listen. Played here by Claron McFadden, Julia Watson, and the Nash Ensemble conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
Atom and His Package - Punk Rock Academy
A classic. Philadelphia-based musical phenom, Adam Gorem, made Atom and His Package as a joke after being given a synthesizer by a friend, but it caught fire because it combined punk attitude, catchy tunes, and hilarious and human lyrics. Plus tons of great quotes of 80s tunes.