The Guinness Book of Records has Sir Paul McCartney as the most successful songwriter ever, based on the commercial success of his recordings. There is too the comment made on the BBC when he became Sir – “This has to be the most popular knighthood of all time: no other person has brought such pleasure for so long to so many millions of people”.

A long, multifaceted career
James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool on June 18^th, 1942, which makes him 68 this year. When the Beatles recorded their first single in 1962, he was just 20. The most successful rock group ever broke up in 1970, and in 1971 McCartney formed a band he called Wings – the three members who stayed with it always were McCartney, his wife Linda, and guitarist and singer Denny Laine. The group was disbanded in 1981 (one year after John Lennon was killed), and for the rest of the 80s McCartney continued to write and record, with wife Linda and writers such as Elvis Costello. In the 1990s McCartney concentrated on composing classical works of music, but also released a pop album. He was knighted for services to music in 1997, but the years 96 and 97 were devoted to helping his wife Linda struggle against breast cancer – to which she succumbed in April 1998. McCartney slowly returned to the recording studio and in 2002 went back to touring. A relationship with Heather Mills started  in 2000 and ended in a disputed divorce in 2007. He continues to work in the realms of popular and classical music, touring the world, and performing at a large number of concerts and events, while honours and acclaim shower on him. His group for the last ten years has been McCartney himself (guitar, bass, piano, vocals), guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, keyboards Paul Wickens and drummer Abe Loriel Jr. Their 200^th concert performing together was on 13^th July 2010 in Salt Lake City.
 
Yesterday – the context
Much popular song is written in 24-bars, in an AABA pattern: the original melody and different words make up the A parts, while the “middle eight” (B section) is a departure in melody and words from the first. This simple pattern, plus the 12-bar blues sequence, accounts for a huge amount of North American popular song. The spread of this music – making it “popular” – was strongly influenced by the technological changes of the 20^th Century – first the widespread use of radio, then the recording industry (vinyl records stamped from an original) and the film industry. Artists would become rich and famous based on songs of 3 or 4 minutes duration, sold at an easily affordable price to thousands or millions.

After WWII, the work of artists already famed in America began to reach Britain, where it was greeted by the youth as something new, different and modern. Liverpool, being the chief port of entry for US merchandise, was always well supplied with the latest hits, and there sprang up many local bands, imitating rock ‘n roll, skiffle groups, jazz bands, and lapping up the production of American stars like Bill Haley,Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan.

The songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney started in 1957. In the early days they would often work sitting opposite one another, John playing the guitar as a normal right-hander, and Paul the mirror image, playing left-handed, both inventing phrases and words and building them up into a completed song. Rarely were more than the words written down, because once they had done the creative part (in a session of about 3 hours) they both knew it and could play it. At the beginning, their output was close to the American originals, and they had a vast knowledge of different artists and styles. Sometimes John would have most of a song invented, to bring it into a session with Paul and improve and complete it, and sometimes it was the other way round. As time went on, they invented songs which moved further and further away from their models – innovating in words, sentiments, chord sequences, settings, backing instruments, and artificial effects. One of the most striking things always was that they sang in harmony – usually two-part between John and Paul, but often with George as well – while they played their instruments at the same time. They were also unshakeably professional, turning in only perfectly coordinated and disciplined performances…. and the final touch was their laid-back humour, which refused to take themselves too seriously, joking and kidding around.
 
Yesterday – the song
It is perhaps ironic that the song of the Lennon-McCartney partnership which has been most “covered” (sung by other artists) has none of the normal caracteristics of the Beatles’ output: it was written by Paul, with no input from John, and when it was recorded in June 1965 the other Beatles felt they had nothing to contribute, so it was recorded as just Paul, voice and guitar. Later George Martin did an arrangement for a string quartet backing, which was modified a little by Paul, but kept in. The Beatles only released it in an album in the UK (part of Help!), but in the US it became a hit single.

In any case, it is a little gem of a piece of music, so original and cohesive in its chord sequence, and the melody and the words go perfectly together; the sentiment is quite simple – the breakup of a love affair – yesterday I was fine, today I’m alone and down. In a subtle way, it is really a dialog between the melody and the accompaniament which keeps moving away and creating a new background… the initial word Yes-ter-day sort of slides in to the chord of F, but then the backing goes Em7 and A7, which kicks the voice off onto a flight upwards all my troubles seemed so far away– but on way the backing goes down from Dm to Bb, which sets up the descending phrase now it looks as though they’re here to stay, coming back to F but a bit higher up. Then a very interesting sequence C/ Dm7/ G7/ Bb/ F rounds out Oh I believe in yesterday. The middle eight uses the same building blocks of chords, with the voice low on Why she, then going high –…… had to go, I don’t know – comes down on she wouldn’t say – repeats, and then resolves beautifully down to the original tune again. Two minutes and a classic of pop music.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXp-vpE9eU

Today
Remarkably, Paul McCartney is still with us, still making music, having learned to live with fame, adulation, fortune, drugs, the breakup of the Beatles, the loss of his songwriting partner, the loss of his beloved wife, and an acrimonious divorce from another. He still comes across as a lad from Lancashire, with a self-deprecating wit, feet on the ground in spite of the success wherever he goes, and his enormous list of artistic achievements.
 
So, enjoy – and Good Listening!

Frederic Chopin: 4 Ballades
Krystian Zimerman, piano. Deutsche Grammophon 423090-2

200 years since Chopin’s birth
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin was born on 1 March 1810, in the village of Zelazowa Wola in Poland, to a French father and Polish mother. Frederic’s musical talent was apparent very early, and by age 7 he had written two Polonaises. He had a piano tutor from age 6 to 12 (who then said there was no more he could teach him). In the autumn of 1826, he began studying the theory of music and composition at the Warsaw High School of Music (but didn’t take the piano classes!). At the end of his third year, the principal Elsner wrote in a report “Chopin, Fryderyk, third year student, amazing talent, musical genius”. Then he was already writing extended piano works, such as the Variations on a theme of Mozart Op.2, and works for piano and instruments.

He began to travel abroad with friends, and in 1829 gave a concert in Vienna, with great success – and the Variations were published there in 1830.

On another trip abroad in 1830, he was cut off from his homeland by the revolution in Warsaw against Russian dominance, but he eventually went to Paris where, after the Revolution was put down, he joined a large group of expatriate Poles. In Paris, his reputation as an artist grew rapidly. By 1832, his main income came from giving piano lessons to the Polish and French aristocracy, and Parisian salons were his favourite place for performances. In a friendly, intimate group of listeners he disclosed the full scale of his pianistic talents.(Ah me, no portable recorders or video cameras at that time!)

In 1835, he became engaged to a Polish girl, but her family broke it off out of concerns about Chopin’s health. In the summer of 1838, he entered into a close liaison with Aurore Lucille Dupin, a well-known writer under the name George Sand. She was older by six years, a divorcee with two children, and offered the lonely artist what he missed most from the time when he left Warsaw – tenderness, warmth and maternal care. They spent the winter of 1838/1839 on the Spanish island of Majorca, where Chopin became gravely ill, showing symptoms of tuberculosis.

In the summer of 1839, they went to Aurore’s house in Nohant in France, where his health recovered. When they returned to Paris in the winter, they shared a house at 16 rue Pigalle, and from Nov 1842 they lived in adjacent buildings at 80 rue Taitbout, spending summers in Nohant together until 1846. This relationship is shown in a recent Polish film Chopin: Desire for love, which is apparently historically quite accurate; It shows the pressure on the relationship from Chopin’s artistic temperament, the jealousy of the son about his mother’s regard, and the daughter’s being in love with Chopin herself! But through this period Chopin wrote most of his major works, today regarded as pinnacles of writing for the piano. After the relationship broke up 1847, so did Chopin’s health and his artistic output, and he died in 1849.

From his brief life of 39 years, Chopin left us 4 Ballades, 27 Études, 67 Mazurkas, 25 Nocturnes, 26 Preludes, 16 Polonaises, 4 Scherzos, 3 Sonatas, 20 Waltzes, 31 other works for the piano, 19 songs, 4 Chamber works, and 6 works for piano and orchestra, including the two Concertos. (This listing includes works published posthumously).

The step change
As a writer for the piano, Chopin followed Mozart and Beethoven, while Schubert was 13 years younger. However, Liszt, Schumann and Mendelssohn were almost exact contemporaries and they knew each other well, while Brahms was a generation later. Importantly too, the technology of piano building was advancing fast, with Pleyel and Erard in Paris making pianos of greater sonority, perfecting the hammer mechanism and the sustaining pedal. Now we are so familiar with Chopin’s music, and the way the piano can be used, it is difficult to recognize the tremendous leap forward made by his compositions. But there is no doubt of the wonder and admiration they caused at the time. Chopin’s themes were interesting, sometimes of a touching delicate beauty; his sense of harmony and of making changes in harmony was very advanced – he moves between the harmonic keys like walking in a flowery meadow, going from one to the other without shock or harshness. His embellishments, sometimes putting eleven notes in the right against six in the left hand – or 17 or 24 – or running all the way up the piano and coming back – don’t lose sight of the theme. But sometimes the music develops into runs, where the right starts a rapid pattern up and down, while the left hits the bass notes and then strong chords, or joins the right in runs up and down the whole range of the piano. Then crashing chords, octaves in both hands….. And somehow these impressive gymnastics have an emotion which speaks directly to us, and are constrained within a formal structure which is easy to follow. His strong passages seem to be heroic and heartfelt, rather than hurting, and his soft quiet melodies noble rather than saccharine.

His music is, generally, very difficult to play, although there are simpler and very fine pieces there; but his major works are a major challenge, requiring the very highest level of mastery of the piano. But the pieces are there, a challenge to greatness, and through the years outstanding exponents of Chopin have become world famous through their interpretations – I myself have a particular regard for Rubinstein, Horowitz, and Ashkenazy – but today there seem to be many pianists who can master the technical difficulties, leaving us open to appreciate or not their artistic merit.

Chopin switched between styles as the inspiration took him, and he wrote 4 pieces he called Ballades – free in form and in imagination, all in 6 to the bar, which is a very flexible time signature (it can be 2 times groups of three, or three times groups of two, and the character changes a lot from one to the other).

Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op. 23, 1833
This was written when Chopin was already established in Paris. After a wandering introduction begins the first theme in 6/4 time, with a sparse accompaniament of chords; in the repeat this is more grandiose, before quietening down to introduce the lovely second theme, which dissolves back to the first. But this quickly goes to the second again, strong, majestic, and this time it dissolves into delicate filigree work at the top of the piano. Back it comes to earth with the second theme, played strongly, and then returns to the first, quietly…. but then explodes into a final coda , cascading up and down, to a final shout of defiance.

Ballade No.2 in F major, Op.38, 1839
This comes from Chopin’s mature years with George Sand, living in Paris and Nohant, and was dedicated to Schumann. The theme starts simply, in 6/8….. and explodes into fortíssimo chords up and down the piano,until a lull brings back the first theme, which doesn’t settle, because changed harmonies and little hesitations give a hint of menace…. And then back comes the storm again, thundering in the lower reaches of the piano, and then the strong chords in the left, accompanied by cascades of chords in the right roll and roll on, until it suddenly stops, and a little recall of the first theme brings us to a quiet close.

The CD
Pianist Krystian Zimerman is Polish, one of the most highly regarded modern interpreters. On the CD cited above can be found all four Ballades, as well as the Barcarola Op. 60 and the Fantasia Op.49.  He plays with delicacy or power, restraint or abandon, not smearing the sound with excessive pedal, perfectly within what one imagines the traditional view of Chopin asks for. Wonderful stuff.

So, giving thanks once again for  this extraordinary talent who was born 200 years ago….. Good Listening!

Mahler has written music which makes full display of the resources of a modern Symphony Orchestra. He makes wonderful use of the different sounds of the orchestra – trumpets, horns, and trombones in strong passages, and the melodious parts for strings, often led by the cellos. In the quiet parts, the woodwinds (flute, oboe) may float above a harp or plucked strings – while in the climaxes enormous percussion sections come to the fore, making tremendous contrasts between the soft and the loud. Exciting, emotional stuff!

The long road
Gustav Mahler was born in 1860, and was brought up in a thriving German-Jewish community in Jihlava, in the Czech Republic, some 120km north-west of Vienna (which is in eastern Austria). His father was a brewer and inn-keeper, the town had lots of folk singers, choral singing, a military band, and operas at the municipal theatre, and Mahler showed a precocious talent for music. At 15, he went to study piano at the Vienna Conservatory, where he would have heard not only Mozart and Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn, but come into contact with Brahms and Bruckner, and heard Wagner’s music. Not surprisingly, perhaps, one can hear echoes of all these influences of his childhood and adolescence in Mahler’s music.

At the Conservatory, Mahler soon abandoned his piano studies to devote himself to composing, and he also interested himself in conducting – then not a discipline, but something self-taught. At 18, he left the Conservatory, but continued at Vienna University, studying principally the great German philosophers.

Faced with the need to earn a living, he began a conducting career, achieving success in conducting operas, in a variety of appointments, in progressively more important centres – Olmütz, Kassel, Prague, and then Leipzig (1886-1888). All this time, Mahler continued composing, particularly under the inspiration of unfulfulled love affairs.

In 1888, Mahler was appointed Director of the Royal Hungarian Opera in Budapest, but his job was made difficult by cultural conflicts among factions which owned the Opera; although his conducting of Wagner’s operas was met with acclaim, his presentation of his own first Symphony in 1889 was not. In 1891 he took up an appointment as chief conductor at Hamburg’s Stadttheater, where his renown as a conductor grew, although (or perhaps because) he was known as being very demanding on singers and orchestra.

His performance schedule was also very intense, but he dedicated himself to composing in a summer retreat – in Steinbach, in Upper Austria. It was there he completed his 2^nd Symphony, and wrote the 3^rd, and other songs.
 

The 2^nd Symphony
This monumental work was premiered in Berlin in December 1895 – at last to success from public and critics. It reminds me a bit of a Russian novel, being long, complex, full of inner stories and emotions which are referenced as the work goes on. The 1^st Movement is a 22-minute Funeral March, which starts with urgent phrases from cellos and basses, which build up with the brass section, and by successively growing stronger and then fading, become more and more dramatic. It calms down, returns with a crash, falls into chaos, and then repeats an agonized discord, which gives way to a very warm passage from the strings, before an ominous descending passage brings it to a stop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLD6MDvwocM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLUKkyCw4WE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V992jtYTsU&feature=related

The 2^nd Movement is a very melodious waltz, started by the strings, which in the middle is repeated with beautiful variations; again, the music grows very much stronger, before fading, pausing, and then gently repeating until coming to rest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_CF6OPAOP8&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmv6NE1mj0U&feature=related

The 3^rd Movement has a sinuous, wandering theme in 6/8 time, with lots of interventions from the percussion. As this goes on, we start to get interruptions from the tímpani and the brass, which sounds a bit like a call to arms, full of military overtones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2rUDzMQK-A&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQErRyAonPY&NR=1
Again,this calms down, but sounds even stronger after a repeat of the theme, and the music explodes in a sort of cry for help to introduce the Contralto solo of the 4^th Movement. She sings, with help from a chorale of brass and responses from the orchestra – “Man lies in need – I would rather be in heaven – but I will not be turned from God.”
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQErRyAonPY&NR=1

The last Movement
The 5^th Movement is vast, strongly reminiscent in its structure of the last movement of Beethoven’s 9^th.  Here too the music interrupts in the middle for a solo voice, and then builds and builds, with soloists, choir and orchestra, to an immense climax. It opens with a crash, and the music is sometimes distant, sometimes wandering vaguely, sometimes in the middle of deep suffering, interrupted by a stately and very large chorus from the brass (just like film music when the hero’s saving spaceship appears). But still the feeling of struggling against overwhelming odds persists, and after an agonizing effort, the sound dies away. Then far in the distance (in fact, off-stage) a trumpet sounds a reveille, like a distant glimpse of Paradise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ-5JVQ9Gck&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgw7z8OFtFc&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-KywtFQvDo&NR=1
Then, pianissimo the choir begins, and the Soprano soloist sings – “Rise again, He who called you will give eternal life”. Then very slowly the phrases build, with the soloists, and the choir “what has been created must rise again”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-_VTEc5QgM&NR=1
… until finally in the last minutes, a feeling of conquest begins to assert itself and we have a full orchestra of 120, a choir of 150, soloists, and organ – “I shall die that I may live – my heart you will rise again”, where the dissonances finally are resolved to full, round immense chords complete with drums and bells…..
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HpWDQsNJ3k&NR=1

Listening
After his death in 1911, Mahler’s music remained comparatively unknown for some 50 years. But in the 60s it came right back into the repertoire, particularly in the US. The combination of huge orchestral resources, big scale, intense emotion, the contrasts between suffering, calm, and redemption found an echo in the spirit of the times. Many orchestras played and recorded the full cycle of Mahler’s Symphonies (there are 9 complete).

Another quality of his music is that the emotion which it passes is very dependent on the conductor, and the way he takes the tempos, the time he gives to the pauses, how he builds the climaxes – apart from the technical precision. You can find versions of the 2^nd Symphony by many conductors, and all seem to give a slightly different account.

I chose here the version by Sir Simon Rattle with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, both because it is very fine, and because it can be seen and heard on YouTube (the links have been inserted in the text). It is wonderful how Rattle built a young, unknown orchestra into a fine, disciplined and precise instrument capable of such music.
 

So Easter time is good for tuning in to the Resurrection …..and Good Listening!

Flying high: Ivete Sangalo
The most successful singer in Brazil in this genre today, Ivete Maria Dias de Sangalo was born into a family of musicians in Juazeiro, Bahia in 1972. After their father’s sudden death when she was 15, the family sought multiple ways of getting income (including selling her mother’s marmita) and she began a singing career at 17. In the early 90s she joined the Banda EVA, one of the “blocos baianos” which play music for dancing and singing for hours on end – axé, swingue and samba-reggae – and helped transform them into a major success, selling millions of albums and playing sometimes 30 times a month. However, Ivete had talent not only for Carnaval music, but also for interpreting many different styles, and in 1999 she started a solo career. She goes from success to success, her audience ever-expanding.
If you look at, for instance, the video A Galera from her live show in the Maracanã http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1b_2dRVxNs, you can see the height of her artistry – a complete understanding of how to make a huge audience dance and enjoy themselves, working with a large group of musicians who lay down a compulsive rhythm, and good dancers – while she herself, really good-looking and radiating happiness and rhythm, goes up and down, singing and commanding the whole show. The way she spaces the words (often complicated) across the rhythm is a skill seemingly natural to Brazilians, but a mysterious art to many of us. And the audience sings right along with her! To me, she is a Brazilian pop Madonna, with total charm and no vulgarity, goddess of the povão. The DVD of the Maracanã show has sold over 1 million copies, which puts her right up there with the international mega-stars. The next big show will be in Madison Square Garden this February.
In interviews, she comes across as highly intelligent, close to the people and absolutely assured of herself. She is undoubtedly big business, not only in music, but also through appearing in commercials and endorsing products. In October last year her first child was born, and she remarks that she didn’t expect the total change in her attention, towards her son’s care and well-being. How she will reconcile this with the demands of a really top professional career will be worth following…..

Originality: Ana Carolina
Ana Carolina Souza was born in Juiz de Fora, Minas in 1974, like Ivete into a family of musicians. At 18, she began singing in the bars in her home town, gradually receiving invitations from more and more important venues. She often accompanies herself on the guitar, sometimes also on piano, and she has an unusually deep contralto voice, singing in the same range as most male pop singers.
Some of Ana Carolina’s video clips on YouTube are of unusually good quality and inventiveness. On Garganta, for instance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSX3mYebXtE&feature=fvst, a model is shown at the start wearing a full-length knitted red dress, but the hem snags and the knitting starts to unravel as she is shown walking, going down the elevator, along the street – with cuts to Ana Carolina singing…. And as the music unwinds, so does the dress, until at the end of the clip, she just has the collar left…fun! Ana Carolina is nothing like in the same league as Ivete for scale of backing musicians and venues, but she is beginning to appear at the most important events. I find she brings to her songs an intensity which is often very moving, and she can be relied upon for something unconventional in the setting in which she sings.

Cool and stylish: Ceu
Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças was born (into a musical family!) in São Paulo in 1980, began her professional career at 15, and when 18 teamed up with two Brazilian musicians living like her in New York. She is both composer and singer, and has created a way of singing lightly, with lots of space, over a busy backing rhythm with backing vocals. In complete contrast to the mega-show style, she herself is non-sexy, non-movement – but the music is very rhythmic and good for dancing, and the effect is distinctly cool. The moments of emotion are muted, but they are there. Look for the video clip of Vagarosa, from her first album, and Lenda http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA6ome0TWd4. She has recently been experimenting with building Jamaican influences into her music, and evidently she is not bound to one style, but can absorb influences and make something of her own. Now selling albums in the US and England, doing themes for Globo novelas and shows, she is on the way up.

In transition: Sandy
Sandy Leah Lima was born in 1983, and is the daughter of Durval de Lima, who is Xororó of the Dupla Caipira (Country Music Duet) Chitãozinho e Xororó. She and her youger brother Junior were put on the stage at an early age, and their duets as Sandy e Junior proved a hit. Their stage manner is impeccable, and she used to come across as a very sweet teen, absolutely charming, and their singing is just fine. By the time she was 21, Sandy had made 14 albums and two films! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NfDXepqZ4c
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this pair is that, even though famous and obviously earning very well, they seemed to retain their normal selves and normal lives – in spite of their fame, remaining charming and modest. No mean feat of parenting, that! However, in 2007 the duo came to an end, and Junior is playing in groups as a guitarist, while Sandy started singing in a completely different setting and with a new repertoire – jazz and bossa nova classics accompanied by just a pianist – and one who plays sparsely at that. Sandy also graduated in Languages from PUC Campinas and married in 2008. Sounds like a Country Music idol?
Still going for her is that at 27 she is becoming an absurdly beautiful woman, but the simple settings and well-known repertoire now makes it easy to judge her on just her singing – and it is not clear whether the way she produces her voice is up to meeting the kinds of demands she now makes on herself.

So here are some talents to follow……..and Good Listening!

The preparations for Christmas are perhaps as exciting as the day itself – putting up decorations, sending and receiving greetings, doing shopping, arranging amigo oculto, planning meals, scheduling visits – and taking out the scores of Christmas Music for some rehearsals.

Christmas Music
What is Christmas Music? Well, for me Christmas Carols are songs like God rest ye, merry gentlemen, and Good King Wenceslas, which often come down to us from medieval times, with their words and simple harmonies. They intermingle with Christmas Hymns, like O come, all ye faithful, and Hark the herald angels sing which because of their popularity step out of the strictly Church setting, and are known to all. Then Christmas Songs are those which have found more modern popularity in non-religious settings, like I’m dreaming of a White Christmas, and Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. Did you know all those? Well, so do millions of other people – and so this music seems indelibly associated with the Christmas Season. We want to hear these again, and probably to sing them, and then pack them up and forget them until next year.
This of course has not escaped the recording industry, and making an album of Christmas Music appears to be an easy way to get some sales for artists who already have a reputation. Take the traditional Christmas Carols and Songs, arrange them into the artist’s well-known sound, and you are bound to make some sales to present-givers. Next year, the cycle repeats.

Best-selling Christmas Music in the UK
Top of the list at amazon.co.uk is If on a Winter’s Night, by Sting, complete with photo of Sting walking through a forest in a greatcoat in the snow. But this is not trivial stuff, because he has gone to the trouble of calling on his immense repertoire of pop, folk, and jazz, to give original settings to Christmas Music both traditional and modern, and to some compositions of his own. He searches for an atmosphere of “mystery and storytelling” and, if you like his voice, you will think he has found it. Interestingly enough, Sting (really Gordon Sumner from Newcastle) says that the impact of Christmas for him was bound up with the contrast between the dark, cold outside, and the warmth, the family, and the feelings of love and tenderness inside…. Which is perhaps why to many of us from colder climes, Christmas seems to lose some of its charm in the sweltering heat of the Rio summer.

Number 2 on the list is Christmas in the Heart, by Bob Dylan, rated as a curiosity for fans, but unlikely to interest anyone else! Many of the other CDs in the top 20 are collections – Carols and Songs by varied artists in varied settings. Perhaps typical is Classic Christmas – where Deck the Hall is played bombastically by the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, and I saw three ships is sung by the choir of Clare College, Cambridge, in a link to tradition, and Silent Night is sung by The King’s Singers. In short, something for everyone.

Also in the top 20 we have albums by Tori Amos, who gives folksy Afro-pop settings to old favourites, but with a squeezed, sometimes-out-of-tune voice, she is apparently a triumph of marketing over musicianship. Then there is Michel Bublé, who sounds like a modern Bing Crosby, except his voice is lighter; James Taylor, who has evidently “gotta friend” for Christmas;, and Diana Kroll, who predictably plays jazzed-up versions of Jingle Bells and many others.

In the top 20 we have some albums which are modern developments from the English traditions of Christmas: At 12 there is Carols from King’s. This is the ethereal choir of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, singing Carols in a format outside their traditional Christmas-Eve service, and at 14, the John Rutter Christmas Album. John Rutter, also Cambridge-based, has become very popular with his compositions for choirs, and for his recordings with his own choir. He manages a blend of melody, modern harmony, and rhythm which is bland and pleasing, and he mixes both old and new songs. At 18 there is Karl Jenkins’ Stella Natalis. Karl Jenkins has written some compositions for choirs which blend jazz and classic forms in a moving way, and he has become popular with choral societies and audiences in the UK. Here he gives the treatment to Christmas Music.

Outside the top20, but there at 22 on long-standing merit, is Handel’s Messiah as recorded by Sir Colin Davis with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 1966. Still a wonderful version (see GL of Oct 2008).
 

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
For me, the epitome of Christmas is the service of Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge at 3pm on Christmas Eve the 24^th. (You can hear this through the BBC on the Internet). Broadcasting this started in 1928, and has continued every year missing only 1930 – even through the War – until the present day. The form of service has become a pattern for many other celebrations: the readings tell the story of Christmas, from the eviction from the Garden of Eden, to St. Luke’s memorable story of the birth of Christ, and the equally memorable summing-up of St. John – “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory…. full of grace and truth”. There is a pleasing variety of ages and callings in the readers, and between each are Carols sung by the Choir, and some Hymns sung by all. King’s Choir, which as in many Cathedral Choirs in the UK has boy sopranos, produces a wonderful purity of sound and precision of singing.

In my boyhood, this broadcast coincided with Mother cooking the Christmas Dinner (to be eaten at lunch on the 25^th) and Father coming home early with some goodies – and my being allowed to lick out the remains of the cake mixture from the bowl with my finger…. But in any case, when the single treble voice begins to sing Once in Royal David’s city, in the stillness of the packed chapel, and the unseen silence of millions of listeners, there is a hand which reaches in and gives my heart a tweak….. this is Christmas, when we forget the bad things, and celebrate the good, and children especially…..

In our Community in Rio de Janeiro
As you will see elsewhere in the Umbrella, there is no lack of Christmas Music in our Community, with the British School and Christ Church Carol Services, the SCM’s concert on 7^th December and Sing-Along Messiah on the 14^th, and round-the-piano Carols for Everyone at the BCS Christmas Party on the 12^th. Apart from lots of other events throughout Rio.

So……..Good Listening and Singing!

Imagine a torrent of melodic invention like a mountain stream – sometimes threading through airy heights, sometimes rushing headlong through rapids, then broadening out in wide still pools, or wandering through beautiful tranquil meadows… the lovely tone of Stan Getz’s tenor saxophone could do all these things. Sometimes cool, sometimes warm – sometimes intense emotion breaking out – always improvised, spontaneous and absolutely precise rhythmically. Participating in swing bands from an early age, in the 50s Stan achieved fame for “cool” jazz in small groups, before adopting Bossa Nova and helping lift it to fame.

Jazz musician
Stanley Gayetzky was born in 1927, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants to the USA. Although he was a top student in high school, he showed a great interest in musical instruments, and a talent for music – he could hum all the Benny Goodman clarinet solos from memory, he was good at sight reading and had an excellent musical memory. When his father gave him a saxophone at age 13, he set about practising all day, and soon was good enough to be invited to join bands, while he could earn money playing gigs. Soon music took over from studies, and he dropped out of School. In 1943, at 16, he auditioned for the band lead by trombonist Jack Teagarden – many musicians were being called up to serve in the Armed Forces – and was taken on at $70 a week (more than twice what his father was earning). Soon he was playing one-nighters all over the States, and learning too to smoke and drink. In 1944 he joined Stan Kenton’s band, playing in California, and that year participated in his first recording date ….. but he also became addicted to heroin. In 1945 he joined Benny Goodman’s band, playing on the East Coast, and would go into New York to hear Charlie Parker, whose bepob was revolutionising jazz. In 1946 he married Beverly Berne (a jazz singer) and began working in a group called Woody Herman’s Second Herd, which had a famous sax section known as the Four Brothers – all outstanding musicians and players. Although big bands mostly played from a written score, the soloists could improvise as they wanted and as the mood took them. A solo of Stan’s on “Early Autumn” became a hit – but to the audience, not to Getz, who once commented: “It’s a nice solo, [but] I don’t understand why it was such an earth-shaking thing. It’s just another ballad solo for me…. my music is something that’s done and forgotten about”. (Listen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29VVabTj4Wk). However, this brief solo brought him to notice, and when he left the Herd in 1950, he was already being invited to share the bill with other top-flight jazz musicians, like Charlie Parker and Lester Young, and for the rest of his life he was his own band leader.

In the early 50s his career was in full flow – in the first five years he recorded 40 albums, mostly with titles like Stan Getz Plays, Stan Getz Special etc and in polls was voted the outstanding jazz tenor sax player in successive years. But at the same time his drug addiction absorbed all his income, and it took a jail sentence and hospital treatment to get him “detoxed”. In 1955 Stan flew to Sweden where he was well known, but became very ill; however, a fan from a wealthy Swedish family, Monica Silfverskiold, decided it was her mission in life to take care of him –they became engaged in Sweden and married later in the US when he divorced from his first wife (three children with the first, two with the second). In 1958 they moved to live in Denmark; Stan was now very well off, and his playing was admired all over Europe.

Bossa Nova
On returning from Europe in 1961, Stan found that musical tastes had moved on, and he was not really inspired by the modal improvisations then in vogue. He recorded an innovative album called Focus, which was a commercial flop, although he regarded it as his best work. Then he linked up with guitarist Charlie Byrd, who had just returned from a trip to Brazil where he heard Bossa Nova, and they recorded an album called Jazz Samba, containing many of the Bossa Nova hit tunes – but it had a rhythm section of American drummers who were way away from the subtle “batida” originated by João Gilberto. But in the States, the album was a hit, and was followed by more recordings with Brazilian musicians resident in the US (Luis Bonfá and Laurindo Almeida). There was a launching of genuine Bossa Nova in New York in November 1962, when most of the leading Brazilian exponents travelled there. Afterwards a recording session was arranged which had Stan Getz on tenor sax, João Gilberto guitar, Tom Jobim piano, Tião Neto bass, and Milton Banana on percussion – and so finally the rhythm had a subtlety and ginga authentically Brazilian! According to Ruy Castro´s account (in the excellent history Chega de Saudade) Stan’s adaptation to the “genuine” Bossa Nova beat was not so easy, but was finally helped by considerable doses of whisky! Astrud Gilberto, João’s wife, sang the lyrics in English on some tracks, and her simple clear voice, melodious and unaffected, added a special charm to the disk, which was already destined to be a classic. Vintage Gilberto and Jobim were beautifully complemented by Getz’s warm sound, and his improvisations, if not adventurous, were completely apposite. It took some six months before the album Getz/Gilberto was released, together with a single with Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado – but both were a hit, and established careers in the States for everyone (except Tião and Milton!). Not only that, but it established Bossa Nova as a new musical trend, and spread its fame worldwide.

The later years
Getz remained closely associated with Bossa Nova for many years, but always kept to his roots of jazz, experimenting with different styles. Well known and appreciated through the Americas and Europe, he moved around, playing in clubs, festivals, and concerts, called by the White House to play on special occasions. Always he played with his beautiful characteristic sound, a mastery of his instrument which appeared effortless, and a never-exhausted creativity. Every improvisation was different: every time he played, something new happened – sometimes more inspired, sometimes less. He based himself in California, and taught at Stanford University, combining it with touring. By the mid-80s he was essentially free of drink and drugs (but eventually he died in 1991 of liver cancer). His recording legacy is immense: 386 albums over a 50-year career.

The CD But Beautiful was recorded live in a concert in Holland in 1974. It brought Stan Getz together with the Bill Evans Trio, which had Eddied Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums. Since Stan and Bill were both outstanding white jazz musicians, adept at slow ballads, some moving playing could be expected – and indeed it happened on The Peacocks, a cool, lonely number. Stan plays the melody, not straying far in his improvisations, while Bill on the piano produces the enigmatic chords which only he seems able to conjure up.

But the two musicians show very different skills on Funkallero, a fast number, also composed by Bill. Here we are in the essence of jazz – inventing interesting phrases which fit over a sequence of chords (here quite simple ones), and building up a tremendous swinging rhythmic impulse. Both show they are masters at it – particularly Getz who rolls out chorus after chorus of precise, wildly swinging phrases.

It’s very easy to hear great recordings of Stan Getz – go to his official web site www.stangetz.net, and each page you choose has a different piece playing in the background – the song and the recording are noted on the left.
 
So tune in to the warm, lyrical sax of Stan Getz – and Good Listening!

Would you like some joyful, melodious and absolutely no-stress music to play in the mornings while you start your day? An antidote to endless Michael Jackson clips? Try any CD of music by Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer of the Baroque period and violin virtuoso, who wrote some of the happiest and picturesque music ever!

The composer
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678, and died in Vienna in 1741, which makes him a contemporary of J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750) and Handel (1685-1759). Son of a professional violinist, he was ordained in 1703, but was soon permitted to devote himself to music, being exempted from celebrating masses. From 1703 until about 1740, he directed music at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. This institution took in orphans and abandoned children, teaching the boys a trade and the girls principally music. Through the quality of the teaching, many of the girls became very fine instrumentalists – and Vivaldi turned out about two concerti per month for public performances. Some 500 are known today, and more are thought lost. Usually these concertos have one or more solo instruments – violin, flute, oboe, bassoon, bandolin – in imaginative combinations, while the orchestral parts are quite uncomplicated.

Apart from this Vivaldi wrote and produced 46 operas, as well as sonatas and Church music – his “Gloria” is now widely known.

Vivaldi travelled and performed throughout Europe – his music was particularly popular in France, while Bach in Germany studied his work, transcribing several compositions for the keyboard. Emperor Charles VI in Vienna admired Vivaldi’s work, and invited him to work there.

In his later life, the popularity of his music declined in Italy, and he decided to leave Venice and seek the patronage of Charles VI in Vienna. But unhappily, shortly after his arrival there, his prospective patron died and he was left stranded and in poverty. In 1741 he died after an illness.

The rediscovery of his music
Quite a lot of Vivaldi’s orchestral music was published in his lifetime, mostly by a printer in Amsterdam. However, after his death his music was largely forgotten, and the few copies which survived were in libraries and known only to musicologists.  In the autumn of 1926 a boarding school in Piedmont run by Salesian Fathers discovered in their arquives a large collection of old volumes which they thought of selling off to antique dealers to raise funds. They asked the National Library in Turin to value the material, and they in turn asked Dr. Gentili at Turin University for help. He asked for a list and suggested the material be sent for examination, later receiving several heavy crates. Imagine his feelings when he opened the crates, and found volume upon volume of Vivaldi autographs! Then began a long and delicate mission to try and secure this material intact for the Turin Library… a donor was found who gave a large sum to the University in memory of his deceased infant boy, and 97 volumes of rare music – printed, manuscript, or autographs – from the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries was secured for Turin Library.

When this was examined closely by Dr. Gentili, however, he discovered that much material was incomplete, and appeared to be a part of a larger collection which had been broken up. The original owner was traced – a Genoese Count Durazzo who lived from 1717 to 1794! Eventually Dr. Gentili found there was just one other owner, who was with great difficulty persuaded to sell his collection – again with the help of a donor in memory of his deceased infant son. Thus by 1930 a further 319 items of Vivaldi’s music were added to the Turin Library and to the world’s knowledge.

In 1939 a week of Vivaldi’s music performed in Siena marked the start of the renaissance of his music, which was cut short by WWII. But after the war, Ricordi started publishing his music, and it immediately started to become popular through recordings (and a whole season of his music at the Festival of Britain in 1951). The light-hearted simplicity of this music must have come as a welcome relief after the deprivations of war and the agonised complexity of the then contemporary “classical” music.

Today, some of his orchestral concertos are so well-known as to be almost hackneyed, but more of his choral music and operas are being performed. Often written for student musicians, today they are ideal for amateur groups to perform – while they continue to appeal to audiences.

 
This CD
The Four Seasons is the name given to four Concertos for Violin and Orchestra, each one with three movements – fast, slow, then fast again. When these were published in 1725, Vivaldi wrote a little poem for each one, describing the scene which can be heard in the music. Thus Spring begins with the sound of brooks and birds singing, which is interrupted by a short storm.

In the middle movement, a shepherd is sleeping peacefully,

and in the final one, nymphs and shepherds dance to the sound of pipes.

Summer starts with an impression of too-hot-to-move stillness, with thunder rumbling in the background;

while a sort of threatened calm returns in the second movement.

The storm finally breaks in the third movement “shaking the skies and flattening the corn” in Vivaldi’s words.

Autumn starts with a harvest party with dancing, gaiety, and apparently lots of wine (suggested by progressively wilder cascades of notes from the solo violin) until everyone falls asleep,

and they stay in blissful repose through the second movement.

In the last, a hunter sets out to a jaunty tune.

Winter gives a good impression of cold, with icy blasts of a freezing wind (from the solo violin).

In the middle, the music takes refuge by a warm fireside,

and the last part suggests the evolutions and tumbles of an ice skater

Mostly, this music has a theme carried by the solo instrument or the violins, with simple accompaniment from the orchestra. We don’t find the dynamic, interesting bass part of Bach, nor the middle parts interwoven in polyphony. However, the melodic figures are interesting, very varied, no theme is belaboured, and there is often a strong rhythmic impulse which carries it along. With the help of a little imagination, the music becomes very interesting.

Among very many recordings of the Four Seasons, this one is notable for its restraint. The Academy of Ancient Music was one of the first groups to use period instruments (originals or replicas) from the time when the music was composed. What is perhaps lost in sonority is gained in authenticity. The playing here is impeccable, and leaves one with the feeling – so that’s what Vivaldi meant!

Good Listening!

This year marks the 50^th since Villa-Lobos’ passing, and Rio de Janeiro will be full of his music, as befits a composer with icon status, and a national figure.
 
The composer
Heitor Villa-Lobos was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1887. The rich owners of coffee and sugar plantations had long resisted the abolition of slavery, but this was finally made official in 1888, while the Barão de Mauá’s brave attempts to start industrial ventures based on free enterprise had collapsed. The capital, Rio de Janeiro, was dominated by an elite of traditional families, who set the pace for matters of power, money, and the arts, this based on an admiration for European (and particularly French) culture. Villa-Lobos’ father Raul was the son of Spanish immigrants, definitely outside the elite, but befriended by an influential politician, he received a good education in Vassouras, and afterwards became a public servant in the Biblioteca Nacional. Raul engaged himself in studies in the most diverse fields, and particularly that of music; Heitor was the one who received all his father’s enthusiasm and training in music. When his father died in 1899, his family was left very poor (and his mother helped them survive by washing and ironing table napkins for the Confeitaria Colombo!)

It is hard to pin down details of Villa-Lobos further education – it appears he had only a primary education, and although he entered night school at the Instituto Nacional de Música in 1904 to study cello, the course was soon closed. As we commented in the GL of August 2005 on Pixinguinha, at that time Rio was full of groups playing “choro”, where the music of the elegant drawing rooms was transformed by the African roots of the musicians, becoming rhythmic, free-ranging, full of collective improvisation. The instruments were flute, bandolin, cavaquinho, and guitar – this then considered a vulgar instrument of the lower classes. It seems then, that Villa was a self-taught musician, playing cello in classical groups, and guitar in choro, earning money as he could. From an early age he was writing his own compositions.

Details of his life then become obscure, but it is know he lived in Paranaguá for a time, and went on a trip to the Northeast and Amazonas in 1912, as a working musician. In November 1912 he first went to the house of Lucília Guimarães, pianist and music teacher, and their affinity led to marriage in 1913. Lucília believed, as did Villa himself, in his predestination to be a great composer, and assisted him in every way – with her earnings, finishing up the scores which he poured out in a torrent, and helping to arrange concerts – no easy task for a musician with no financial means. If his first compositions showed the influence of Puccini, Wagner, and Saint-Saëns, from 1916 various pieces showed the influence of Debussy – particularly Prole de Bebê, for piano solo. In 1920 Villa’s compositions attracted the approval of Artur Rubinstein, on a concert tour to Brazil, and his praise for Villa’s creativity opened for him the doors for the support of Carioca society. If, on the one hand, there grew the realization that Brazil had a composer of great artistic merit, it also generated ferocious criticism, which did not accept the free form and dissonances of his music.

In 1923 the Câmara de Deputados voted a grant for Villa to make a long visit to Paris, where he discovered that his music, with its strong influence of Brazilian folk song and native rhythms, was considered exotic, and he the musical representative of his country. There too he heard Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring, whose orchestration of Russian folk themes broke all the existing paradigms of harmony and rhythm, and set new standards for instrumental sound – and this influence went straight into Villa’s music.

Back in Brazil, he found that controversy about his music was still strong – but Rubinstein persuaded Carlos Guinle to fund a second stay in Paris for Villa-Lobos, this time with Lucília, and to contribute to the publishing of important works. During this stay (from 1927 to 1930), Villa could regard himself as the outstanding representative of Brazilian erudite music, although he overspent his budget time and time again.

Back in Brazil, already famous, Villa was asked to head up a project of the Getúlio Vargas government, which made the learning of music a compulsory part of education. This was done principally through singing, with the parts learnt by ear – “Canto Orfeônico”. Villa’s energy and interest carried musical education to far-flung parts of Brazil; his “Guia Prático” has recently been re-edited, and hopefully will serve the same role in musical education as in the past. At its peak, Villa would conduct “Concentrações Orfeônicas” which brought together thousands of school children, to sing in the open air (in football stadiums) the songs they had learnt.

By the 1940s, Villa-Lobos was really of international stature; he travelled frequently to the United States, and wrote commissioned works. His secretary Mindinha became his partner, although his wife Lucília never gave him a divorce.

He continued working without stopping, the towering figure of Brazilian modern classical music, until his death in 1959.
 

The music
Villa-Lobos wrote a tremendous amount of music – for choir, for orchestra, for widely diverse instrumental groupings – more than 1000 known works. I would describe it as having very original, lyrical melodies, surrounded by strongly rhythmic patterns, and full of dissonances. However, sometimes it seems meandering, going from one idea to another, without communicating a structure or constructing a message. Consider a moment some of Villa’s prose -

Ninguém é capaz de, num verdadeiro estado consciente, num perfeito equilíbrio dos seus julgamentos, se amoldar às idéias e às nações de outras personalidades, cuja força de vontade e orgulho se comparam, apesar de reconhecer que, para formação e realização de um todo, é necessário que existam forças, correntes, parcelas de pensamentos, que marcham, paralelamente, umas às outras.

Sounds impressive? – yes;  fine-words? – yes;  prolix? – yes;  did you get some meaning out of it…..?  Well, I didn’t – and that is how I react to much of his music.

However, among all Villa’s works, high consideration is given to the Choros (written in the 20s), the Bachianas (from the 30s), his music for the guitar (particularly the Preludes), while his other music has gems here and there, where there is a particularly happy joining of ideas, orchestration, and flow.

Here are the first three Preludes for guitar, which have become very well known:

The CD
The Bachianas pay tribute to Bach, but don’t have much similarity with Bach’s music, although some pieces are in fugue form. Others are orchestrated folk music. No. 5 is particularly noted for its soaring soprano aria:

while the first movement of No.1 is strongly dramatic, for a cello ensemble:

No.9 starts with a tranquil, jungle-sleeping Prelude, and then gets into a fugue with a long, strongly rhythmic theme. This is great if well played (but here, conducted by the composer, it is not too good):

Disliking his music or loving it (there are listeners in both camps), there is no disputing Villa-Lobos’ status as the most famous Brazilian composer of modern classical music, nor the way he reflected Brazil in his music and helped to create an identity for it, at the same time as he educated and influenced legions of followers.
 

So……..Good Listening!

This is Good Listening #50, so I would like to go back to the composer who was the subject of GL#1 in March 2004 – Johann Sebastian Bach. His music has been a thread all through my life, challenging me to try and play it, bringing solace in troubled moments, and moving me intensely as a listener. There is a little Organ Prelude in E minor adapted for the piano which I play: this gently rolls along, with its calm melody, mobile inner voices, and slight dissonances. It grows in strength, and then gently settles down to a beautifully resolved conclusion…. and with it, the world too fits back into place. A professor of violin told me the same thing about his playing Bach’s pieces for the solo violin. There is a peculiar quality of assured faith and order about his music which comes reaching down to us through the years.
 
Bach’s Life and times
Bach was born in 1685, into a post-Luther Germany still divided into hundreds of small independent states, each ruled autocratically by a noble – but music was everywhere, used at religious services, at court, on civic occasions, and for entertainment. Although this age was pre-science as we know it (Newton was 1643-1727 ) there was great elaboration in architecture, painting, sculpture, vesture, – and in Germany, things were very well cared for in an ordered life-style. Bach’s family had been of professional musicians for generations, and during his youth he could count on over 40 close relatives who were professional musicians. Bach himself was one of five children, but was left an orphan of both parents before he was 10. He was then supported by an older brother Johann Cristoph, but at 15 was admitted to a Choir School in Lüneberg where he stayed on a scholarship which also provided food and board, until he was 17. After a time as “violinist and lackey” in Weimar he obtained his first professional post as organist in Arnstadt. Some 2 years into this tenure, he requested permission to absent himself for a month to go to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude – and ended up staying away 4 months! When he came back, he put so many innovations into his playing that the congregation complained they couldn’t follow him – and in mid-1707 at 22, bolstered by a growing reputation, he took up a new posting as organist at St. Blaise in Mühlhausen. (This is not as simple as it sounds, because many of these appointments were for life, and an employer might refuse to accept a request to leave). Here he developed quickly as musician and composer, for instance writing a full-scale and impressively complex Cantata Gott ist mein König. He married his cousin Maria Barbara. The famous Prelude and Fugue in D minor for organ also comes from this period.

However, once again, Bach’s music was considered too innovative, and in 1708 he accepted an invitation to join the court of Wilhelm Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, as chamber musician and organist. Here things really settled down, and during the next 9 years working for a deeply religious prince, Bach produced most of his great organ works, as well as at least one Cantata a month – and three children. His next appointment was a prestigious and well-paid job as Court Conductor at Köthen, working for Prince Leopold. (This move was so disagreeable to Wilhelm Ernst, that he actually imprisoned Bach for a month in late 1717 to try and stop him going!).

At Köthen, Bach had no obligations to produce Church music, but rather instrumental music for ensembles in which the young Prince Leopold would also take part. From this period come the Brandenberg concertos and much music for the clavier. But sadly Bach’s wife died in 1720, while he was away. Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, who he married in 1721, was to bear him 13 children, of whom 7 died in infancy. But shortly after their wedding, prince Leopold also re-married, music ceased to play a central role at court, and soon Bach was looking for a new appointment.

In 1723, Bach became Musical Director (Cantor) of the 5 principal churches of the city of Leipzig, a post which he occupied until his death. He produced for the Leipzig churchgoers an enormous quantity of sacred works: cantatas, oratorios, masses, and works for the organ. Apart from this, he found time to direct the Collegium Musicum, a grouping of local musicians for whom he composed his orchestral suites and concertos for various instruments, as well as many other keyboard works. The St. John Passion was first performed in Leipzig in Easter week 1724.

The master musician
An obituary of Bach, published some years after his death by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Friedrich Agricola, has this to say -

“If ever a composer showed polyphony in its greatest strength, it was certainly our late lamented Bach. If ever a musician used the most concealed mysteries of harmony with the greatest artistry, it was certainly our Bach. No one ever showed so many ingenious and unusual ideas as he in elaborate pieces…. he needed only to hear a theme to be aware – it seemed instantaneously – of almost every intricacy an artist could produce in treating it. His melodies were unusual, but always varied, rich in invention, and like those of no other composer. His serious temperament attracted him to music that was serious, elaborate and profound; but he could also, when appropriate, adjust himself, especially as a performer, to a lighter and more humorous approach…. His hearing was so fine he could detect the slightest error even in the largest ensembles… As a conductor, he was very accurate, and he was unusually assured of the tempo, which he generally took very lively…. we cannot be blamed for declaring boldly that Bach was the greatest organist and clavier player we have ever had…. How extraordinary, how novel, how expressive, how beautiful were his ideas as an improviser… How perfectly he realised them….”

 Bachmania
During his life, Bach was known more as an extraordinary organist and musician, rather than composer. After his death, his works were largely forgotten, as musical styles changed and evolved to classicism. Many of his manuscripts were lost. It took a performance of the St. Matthew Passion, conducted by Mendelssohn in 1829, to bring his music back to notice. Since then, interest has not ceased to grow: many have devoted their lives to the study of his works, to cataloguing and analysing them, searching for lost manuscripts. Nearly 1000 works are known, but the dating is uncertain of some 250 of them. His music is widely performed; there is a recording of all his known works, in a set of 172 CDs! The best-known ones have been recorded innumerable times. At the 250^th anniversary of his death, BBC Radio broadcast all his Cantatas, 24 hours a day – it took a week! Appreciation of his work has not ceased to grow, and among musicians, of all callings, his works are admired for their innovations, harmonies, structure and unique sentiment.

The CD
Bach’s St. John Passion tells the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion, based on the gospel of St. John. The story is told in long recitatives by the Evangelist (a tenor) and there are solo parts for Christ, Pilate, and other participants. The choir act as the crowd. Apart from this, there are Arias with texts which meditate on what is happening – sometimes sung by the choir, sometimes by soloists with instrumental accompaniment – and Chorales, well-known hymn tunes which would be sung from printed sheets by choir and congregation together, also reflecting on the meaning of Christ’s suffering and death. The words were compiled from varied sources (it is not known by whom) and set to music by Bach. The work is in two parts of about an hour each (they would have been separated by a sermon).

It is evident that the words inspired Bach to capture their spirit in his music – long flowing lines, often with the beautifully worked out and fitted inner parts, the hallmark of polyphonic style. Bach always has wonderful bass lines – supportive, interesting, dynamic. However, it seems Bach sometimes had scant interest in “picturing” the words or favouring the singer – some of the phrases are desperately long, and it seems the words fall where they may. (Accompanying listening with a translation is probably essential!). The opening is distinctly sombre,

and we may count the first part, up to Peter’s denial, as interesting and beautiful music. Here the Evangelist relates how Peter took his sword and struck off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, and was rebuked by Jesus. The choir reflects on this May your will be done on earth as in heaven, Lord God; make us patient in suffering, obedient in everything…..

Things get tense in the second part, however, with the dialogues between Jesus and Pilate, and the interventions of the incensed crowd – “we want Barrabas!”

After Jesus is flogged, Bach’s imagination soars, with incredible and touching harmonies in the bass Arioso My soul, think thou….(19)

The tension continues to mount as Jesus is punished, and the crowd shouts “Crucify! Crucify!”

Another bass aria (24) Hurry…. over a fast-moving bass pattern with interventions from the choir To where? is a masterpiece of writing,

followed hard on by others – the alto Aria (30) It is accomplished,

the soprano aria (35) Dissolve then, heart, in floods of tears,

to the penultimate choir chorus (39) Lie in peace…. which somehow manages to extract some comfort and repose from all the suffering beforehand. Can one doubt the greatness of Bach after such a work?

I find this recording by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists to be at the very highest level of English musicianship. Gardiner keeps the music light, moving along, with great emphasis on shapely phrasing and no histrionics.

So with a reverent bow to Father Bach….Good Listening!

Nearly a year ago I commented on some of the topics in this book by Dr. Sacks, who is a doctor specialising in neurology and psychiatry, and now also a best-selling author. The first realisation is that people have very different perceptions of music – what comes through to me is not the same as what comes through to you, even if we are hearing the same thing. In my brain, the amount allocated to processing auditory perception may be different from yours, past listening experiences may have built up different standards in my consciousness, and my hearing may be linked with my other senses and emotions in a different way. Dr. Sacks has brought together stories of patients from his own clinical practice, plus reports of colleagues, plus quotes from the literature, all to illustrate how people may react to music, how music may be present in the mind, and how it may influence behaviour. Unfortunately, this is done almost entirely as a narrative, without a summary or the drawing of conclusions. Nevertheless, some nuggets of interpretation are in there, and I have tried to draw them out.

This is probably unacceptable from the point of view of the science of medicine. Unlike the physical sciences, where you can experiment until you are confident you have an explanation for the way things work, in this area you have to rely on studying unfortunate cases of persons who through accident or illness have lost part of their normal brain functions. So the basis of experience is small, and all sorts of other factors about the person – previous training, age, environment – may influence what happens. For every tentative conclusion, some other researcher may come up with a contrary experience, or new research may shed light on it. So with due qualification, here are some interesting insights about music and the brain.

Musical hallucinations
Some people, usually those advanced in years and whose normal hearing is failing, may suddenly begin to hear music very clearly, as if someone has turned on a radio nearby. But investigation proves there is no source nearby, and nobody else can hear it! The “music” may be loud, repetitive, and often goes right back to songs heard long ago… the person may be able to control the “playing” partially, or else simply has to put up with it. There is a possible explanation for this in the understanding that the transmission of sound between the ear and the brain is in fact two-way! In normal hearing, the vibrations of the eardrum are transmitted to the cochlea – which has inside it some 3500 hair cells which turn vibrations into electrical impulses which interact with the brain. The mapping of these hair cells to the brain cortex is not fixed – it can be altered by training and use (professional musicians have a larger part of the cortex used for this function). Sound is thus transmitted to the brain, and this is the process which usually dominates. However, a part of the flow between brain and cochlea is in the reverse direction – the brain sends signals to the cochlea. Some of the hair cells are thus used for filtering the sound, and selecting what we perceive. This is why we can pick up someone speaking softly when there is a lot of background noise (particularly useful in Carioca restaurants!) and block out things like traffic noise or the hum of a refrigerator.

In the case of musical hallucinations, it seems that as deafness lessens the flow of impulses to the brain, the reverse flow becomes predominant, and starts sending stored musical memories back to the eardrum, where they play like an external source. There are some distinguished sufferers from such hallucinations – Schumann, Shostakovic and Ravel, for instance, towards the end of their lives.
 
Where is our musical experience stored?
If we regard hearing music as a complex appreciation of pitch and rhythm, then the two are processed and stored in different parts of the brain: the sense of pitch (which includes the tone scale, melody, timbre, harmony) is processed in the right hemisphere of the cortex which deals with perceptions – like sight and touch and so on. Rhythm, though, appears to be dealt with in the left hemisphere and in many other parts of the brain too, including some which control very basic body processes. The left hemisphere deals with logical thinking and language, and tends to become dominant over the right. (These are generalisations which work for the majority of people).

There are some interesting cases when the left hemisphere is damaged or doesn’t develop normally in childhood. Such people, seriously deficient in “normal” abilities, may develop a prodigious capacity to perceive and remember music – qualities of a savant. A musical environment is essential to this development, otherwise the interruption of the learning and dominance of the left hemisphere just stays as a deficiency.

There is evidence too for the re-allocation of functions of the right hemisphere when one of the senses is inhibited in childhood – the case of blind musicians. Blind children may have the third of the cortex normally used for vision re-mapped to other senses, such as audition and touch. Viz Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles…..

Rhythm and Coordination
It seems that human beings are unique among species in having an intimate link in the brain between the hearing and motor systems. We can beat in time to something with a pulse – but other animals can’t follow someone else’s rhythm. (Apparently coyotes and bottlenose dolphins, no less, have the beginnings of this ability). But for us, it’s very important. Every culture has a form of music with a regular rhythm, a pulse, which permits coordination between participants and evokes a feeling of belonging to a group. We can absorb rhythmic patterns and establish internal norms with great precision and stability. (Interestingly enough, what rhythms we are exposed to when young seems to set our preferences and even abilities for life). Music can join people in a social activity forged by their common reaction to rhythm, and common emotions may follow. This may favour cooperation and a sense of group identity….. pop concert anyone? And watch out for Obama’s use of rhythmic speech patterns!
 
Musical therapies
Music becomes so deep-seated in our mind that it may provide a lasting link to normality even when disease impedes the functioning of some parts of the brain. Sufferers from Alzheimer’s disease progressively lose memory, speech, and the ability to manage themselves. However, the response to music is preserved, even in advanced cases…. the person may be able to perform music, reproducing the past, while the act of listening to music re-awakens the perceptions, in an effect which may last for some hours. For such people music is not a luxury, as we so often treat it – to those lost in dementia it can bring them back to themselves and to others, at least for a time.

So….. be aware of what music can do to you and for you  – and Good Listening!