We possess nothing

“There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.” ― John Cage

I was exploring John Cage's minimalistic music earlier today -  like I wrote earlier, some days you need quiet. And in the spaces between the quiet, you need some notes.



Also, listen to this lovely meditative piece, composed for 5 voices, which is one of his many  Number pieces, a body of late compositions by John Cage where "each piece is named after the number of performers involved: for instance, Seven is a piece for seven performers, One9 (read "One Nine") is the ninth work for one performer, and 1O1 is a piece for an orchestra of 101 musicians."

Here's Five: 


It is only this year that I have started exploring the so-called "minimalistic" music of such 20th century music composers as John Cage, Arvo Pärt, and La Monte Young.

"Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God." - Arvo Pärt

Listen to this composition by Arvo Pärt, for example.


Though I should admit I have not reached the point where the music is stripped so bare that all that is left is the silence, as in John Cage's 4'33".

"I have nothing to say / and I am saying it / and that is poetry / as I needed it" --John Cage 

Ancient proverbs tell us that "Silence is Golden" and Rumi may have said that "Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.” but John Cage gives us a very different interpretation of silence in 4'33".

Let John Cage speak for himself.. ;-)

"In this music nothing takes place but sounds: those that are notated and those that are not.  Those that are not notated appear in the written music as silences, opening the doors of the music to the sounds that happen to be in the environment...... There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot." - John Cage, in his essay Experimental Music

But more than avoiding silence or filling space and time with sounds, sometimes one does crave silence for like the poet, Robert Penn Warren, wrote:

In silence the heart raves. It utters words Meaningless, that never had A meaning. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15313#sthash.EFyYoo5l.dpuf

In silence the heart raves. It utters words
Meaningless, that never had
A meaning.   

 Or like the poet, Mary Oliver, writes:

this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

And to put it more philosophically, these lines from Wallace Stevens' poem, Evening Without Angels, come to mind:

In silence the heart raves. It utters words Meaningless, that never had A meaning. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15313#sthash.EFyYoo5l.dpuf

Air is air.
Its vacancy glitters round us everywhere.
Its sounds are not angelic syllables
But our unfashioned spirits realized
More sharply in more furious selves.

                                         And light
That fosters seraphim and is to them
Coiffeur of haloes, fecund jeweller—
Was the sun concoct for angels or for men?
Sad men made angels of the sun, and of
The moon they made their own attendant ghosts,
Which led them back to angels, after death.

Let this be clear that we are men of sun
And men of day and never of pointed night,
Men that repeat antiquest sounds of air
In an accord of repetitions. Yet,
If we repeat, it is because the wind
Encircling us, speaks always with our speech.

Light, too, encrusts us making visible
The motions of the mind and giving form
To moodiest nothings, as, desire for day
Accomplished in the immensely flashing East,
Desire for rest, in that descending sea
Of dark, which in its very darkening
Is rest and silence spreading into sleep.

. . . Evening, when the measure skips a beat
And then another, one by one, and all
To a seething minor swiftly modulate.
Bare night is best. Bare earth is best. Bare, bare,
Except for our own houses, huddled low
Beneath the arches and their spangled air,
Beneath the rhapsodies of fire and fire,
Where the voice that is in us makes a true response,
Where the voice that is great within us rises up,
As we stand gazing at the rounded moon.

  

Music for the day - Tchiakovsky's Violin Concerto

Today, Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto ... with Nathan Milstein on the violin and Walter Hendl conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I believe this is a recording from 1963.

From Wikipedia:

The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1878, is one of the best known of all violin concertos. It is also considered to be among the most technically difficult works for violin.

 

Music for the day - Beethoven Violin Concerto

Today, Beethoven's Violin Concerto D major Op 61

From wikipedia:

    Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written in 1806. The work was premiered on 23 December 1806 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Beethoven wrote the concerto for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day, who had earlier given him helpful advice on his opera Fidelio. The work was revived in 1844, well after Beethoven's death, with performances by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. Ever since, it has been one of the most important works of the violin concerto repertoire, and it is frequently performed and recorded today.

Here's Yehudi Menuhin on the violin with Sir Colin Davis leading the London Symphony Orchestra

Music for the day: Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp

Mozart - Concerto in C Major, K. 299, for Flute, Harp and Orchestra

From wikipedia:

The Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra in C major, K. 299/297c, is a composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for flute, harp, and orchestra. It is one of only two true double concertos that he wrote, as well as the only piece of music that Mozart wrote that contains the harp.


Here's the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, led by Sir Neville Marriner with Irena Grafenauer on the flute and Maria Graf on the Harp.

Music for the day: Piano Love

Today, a few videos *ing the amazing Bill Evans on the piano...

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My Foolish Heart

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Like Someone In Love

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Beautiful Love

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 I do it for Love

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Easy to Love

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Music for the day: Tchaikovsky and Kissin

This video of a 1995 performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 by the famous Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin, with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.




Enjoy! (Not sure who I am telling to enjoy as I don't think anyone really reads this blog. I'm just talking to myself here!)

Mozart's Sister

Behind every great man stands a woman. Sometimes it is your sister! 

Just ran into an article that talks about Mozart's older sister - Maria Anna Mozart, nickname Nannerl, - older to him by about 4.5 years. 

 Maria Anna Mozart as a child (1763) (portrait said to be by Lorenzoni)

"We have few certainties regarding Nannerl Mozart’s musical aptitude but they are significant. We know that she was considered a virtuoso on the harpsichord. As a little girl she performed as a duo with Wolfgang in the international tournées organized by their father, and in the announcements of concerts and newspaper articles she was named – and praised – first. ............. In short, there are many letters in which Herr Mozart vaunts his daughter’s skill at the keyboard and the praise she received. .............once she had grown up and was therefore no longer ‘usable’ as a child prodigy, would be to make her teach the harpsichord, so that the money she earned could go to fill the family coffers and finance the study, travel and artistic promotion of her brother. Naturally Nannerl continued to play in public, but mostly – and not by chance – she performed her brother’s compositions.

To conclude, we can be certain of one thing: due to circumstances, over the course of the years Nannerl Mozart’s musical talent, however great it was, gradually dried up and went to waste"

In addition to Rita Charbonnier's book, it seems there is also a recent movie about her - albeit a fictional version of her life. And Wikipedia may have some more "real" details about her.

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Unfortunately, there is no surviving records of any compositions by Nannerl but so it goes... here then is music by her illustrious brother -- even in a post about her, music by Wolfgang is what will have to be heard here too! I really love almost all compositions by Mozart and really cannot pick a favorite to highlight today - so this is just a random pick!


Music for the day: Mozart's Piano Concertos 17, 20, 21, 23 & 24, with Arthur Rubinstein on the piano with the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra.

The day the music died

Rare are the days when I don't feel like listening to ANY music. Today is one of those days.

I am a bit wound up and stressed and while music would normally relax me in such a state, today any kind of noise is irritating me. I thought of playing the Simon and Garfunkel classic 'Sounds of Silence' or something minimalistic by John Cage or Arvo Pärt.... but then thought, why not play the classic song, American Pie by Don McClean....about the day the music died. (I know... I know ... that this was to mark the death of Buddy Holly and others in a plane crash and it is not about someone not wanting to listen to music!)

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Music is the weapon

Music for this Monday morning: 

Memorial Day here in the United States and I thought this may be an interesting way to mark this day via music.

Dmitri Shostakovich used his Fourth to Ninth Symphony as a silent protest against the horrors of war and the crimes of Stalin.

"I had to write about it, I felt that it was my responsibility, my duty. I had to write a requiem for all those who died, who had suffered...I had to describe the horrible extermination machine and express protest against it." -Shostakovich on his Seventh Symphony depicting the tragedies of World War II.

This is an early recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, Op. 60 (also called the Leningrad Symphony), given that it was composed in 1941! Arturo Toscanini leads the NBC Symphony Orchestra, recording at the NBC studios on July 19, 1942.

Relating reading on the enigma of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony.

Music is the revolution!

Music for this Saturday morning - new to me the Tunisian singer-songwriter, Emel Mathlouthi, whose protest songs, apparently have become anthems for (some of) the Arab Spring revolutions. I found her via this review in the NYT of her New York debut at the French Institute Alliance Française’s World Nomads Tunisia festival, enthralling the audience even with only half of her band. Apparently she became well  known for her protest songs Ya Tounes Ya Meskina and Kelmti Horra which became anthems for the Tunisian revolution and the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

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Bonus video today - an entire album from Marcel Khalife -- again new to me; mentioned in NYT article posted below about Amel Mathlouthi. He is a Lebanese composer, singer and oud player. From 1970 to 1975, he taught at the conservatory in Beirut

 

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Music for the day: Stormy Monday

Music for this Friday evening... 

This is a version of a famous blues song that I had not heard before today and is appropriate in many ways for the week that's been! No play for me this Saturday though.... and I don't pray either! But this has been a stormy week, to say the least! So... Lord... mercy..mercy ..mercy on me! ;-)

"They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday's just as bad.
They call it Stormy Monday
But Tuesday's just as bad.
Lord, and Wednesday's worse
And Thursday's all so sad.

The eagle flies on Friday,
Saturday I go out to play.
The eagle flies on Friday,
Saturday I go out to play,
Sunday I go to church,
Gonna kneel down and pray.

Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy on me.
Lord have mercy,
Lord have mercy on me."

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The first time I heard this song, many many Mondays ago, twas this version by the AMAZING T-Bone Walker

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And then a few years ago I heard this version, which to me, is much better than the Eva Cassidy version above. Etta... o... Etta! What a voice!

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And here's the amazing BB King, who I wish I had seen alive some years back when he was still doing tours and in quite a groove even though nearing 80. Now he's almost retired except for the odd short performance at a White House event or some such... and I can only enjoy him through his records and youtube videos.

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And one last one... a version by the rock group band, Allman Brothers with their heavily blues-influenced guitar playing - I found them quite late in life but really enjoy their music. This is from their session at the Fillmore East in 1971 - an amazing album all round!

 

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Music for the day - Autumn Leaves and Spiritual

Music for this Wednesday: I don't pray but this is as close as it gets to spiritual, indeed!

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And though it ain't the right season, I feel the need to add a bonus track. I  ♥♥♥ the sound of Stan Getz's saxophone.... so, this version of the famous Autumn Leaves tune particularly delights!

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This song was originally composed by Joseph Kosma, a Hungarian-French composer, with the French lyrics by Jacques Prévert, & the latter day English lyrics by Johnny Mercer, set to music for Marcel Carné's 1946 film 'Les Portes de la Nuit', literally 'The Dead Leaves'.

The first time I heard Autumn Leaves was Miles Davis with Cannonball Adderley though... that version rocks! Ooo...listening to it now and WOW. Again! I came upon Getz's version much later and like that too... but this one does particularly delight and is one of my favorite jazz tracks! 

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Autumn Leaves has been recorded by many and I can't keep posting them all here but am going to leave you with this last video for the day ...another version that I love.  

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Music for the day - Issa Bagayogo

There are many musicians from Mali that have delighted over the years but when it comes to a great voice (male), two men stand out - one is Boubacar Traoré and then among the younger generation, it is undoubtedly Issa Bagayogo.

Here then are two tracks from him; the first one is a recent find.

Issa Bagayogo - Namadjidja, from his album, Mali Koura.


 

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And the second one is one that makes me want to get up and dance every time I hear it! ;-)

Issa Bagayogo - Nogo,  from his album, Timbuktu.

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Music for the day: Dobet Gnahore

I have listened to a lot of music from Mali and other nations of Africa in the last 7 years but am relatively new to Dobet Gnahore, who is a singer from the Côte d'Ivoire but is now settled in France. What a lovely voice!

This track, called Samahani, is from the album: "Djekpa La You".

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And one more bonus video of this great talent from Africa.. this is from the 2009 Afrikafestival Hertme in Netherlands.

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Sex, Drugs, and Rock-n-roll

So, why does music we like make us feel good? Science may have an answer.

In 2001, neuroscientists Anne Blood and Robert Zatorre at McGill University in Montreal provided an answer...... people listening to pleasurable music had activated brain regions called the limbic and paralimbic areas, which are connected to euphoric reward responses, like those we experience from sex, good food and addictive drugs.

But why?  ...... The truth is no one knows. However, we now have many clues to why music provokes intense emotions. The current favourite theory among scientists who study the cognition of music – how we process it mentally – dates back to 1956, when the philosopher and composer Leonard Meyer suggested that emotion in music is all about what we expect, and whether or not we get it. Meyer drew on earlier psychological theories of emotion, which proposed that it arises when we’re unable to satisfy some desire. That, as you might imagine, creates frustration or anger – but if we then find what we’re looking for, be it love or a cigarette, the payoff is all the sweeter.

This, Meyer argued, is what music does too. It sets up sonic patterns and regularities that tempt us to make unconscious predictions about what’s coming next. If we’re right, the brain gives itself a little reward – as we’d now see it, a surge of dopamine. The constant dance between expectation and outcome thus enlivens the brain with a pleasurable play of emotions.

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Music for the day: 

James Brown's  Sex Machine

Music for the day: Ravishankar and Menuhin

I think I had listened to this album of the Ravishankar-Menuhin collaboration (West Meets East) many years ago (late 90s? early 00s?) but had forgotten about it. It was a selection on a flight I took recently and I loved this particular track so much, I heard it 3-4 times on the plane and am listening to it again this morning. ♥ it!

Music for the day - Jacqueline du Pré and Elgar

Music for this Wednesday evening.... a British cellist renowned for her version of an English composer's famed cello concerto -- the amazing Jacqueline du Pré, who I learned last year was particularly associated with Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor, with her interpretation has been widely praised as "definitive" and "legendary."

Music for the day: Ali Farka Toure's Savane

Music for this Sunday morning: 

Some day I may be able to gather the words of all that this song and Ali Farka Toure's music means to me but for now, offered without comment is a song that I often listen to when I don't feel too good and one needs something soul-warming. Just that kind of a day ....

Note: Savane is the title song in Malian musician Ali Farka Touré's final solo album, released posthumously.

Music for the day: Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba

I have been a fan of music from Mali for the last half a dozen years or so and so today, presenting one of the great current musicians from Mali. I saw him with his band, Ngoni Ba, live in the Boston area a few years ago and it was a great concert -- hope I'll see him live again some day but until there are videos via youtube to enjoy!

I read that Bassekou Kouyate is celebrating the release of his album, 'Jama ko' with the launch of this brand new video 'Jama ko'. Given the civil war in Mali and related violence and tensions, this video is a "cry for tolerance and peace. Bassekou invited the Christian community, Muslims, Touareg friends like Manny Ansar (head of the Festival Au Desert in Essakane, which I hope to go to some day in my lifetime), the tailor from next door, and many other people to celebrate the open spirit of Mali. Bassekou launched the video on TV in Bamako on Africable and ORTM to spread the message."

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You can find many other videos online for this group but I'll just add one more, one of the songs that gave me the most joy at the aforementioned live show. His wife, Amy Sacko, has such a great voice!

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Music for the day: Grigory Sokolov

Music for this Wednesday morning.... (other than listening to Kat Edmonson again and again ;-))....

Sometime last week I read about Grigory Sokolov [1], a Russian pianist who some have opined is "the greatest pianist alive" -- just an opinion; we all know Martha Argerich is. ;-)) --- so, I had to go find some music by him. 

And the first thing I landed upon was Rachmaninov's 10 Preludes for Piano Op.23:

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 I also enjoyed Sokolov's playing of Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2:

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And I'll leave you with one last video of Sokolov; here he plays the famous Chopin Preludes, Op. 28:

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[1]  If you are curious, here is the blogpost where I ran into the comment re: Sokolov being one of the greatest pianists alive. Ranking pianists is not my job and is a futile exercise for anyone, I think but he does seem like an intriguing guy!

The prodigious and articulate pianist James Rhodes has written a lively tribute in the Spectator magazine to the eccentric Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov, who lives in Madrid. James calls him ‘the greatest living pianist’, an appellation that is hard to prove since Sokolov makes few recordings, lives a sheltered life and doesn’t go out much.

He especially won’t go to London since that would mean attending the consulate in person in order to obtain a visa.