Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise

Babbitt is still 90

Age, With Grace. The New Yorker, May 29, 2006.

Crossed signals: For "bass trombone" read "bass trumpet."

Sibelius in 2008

Is it possible we could have a President Sibelius? Probably not, but people are beginning to mention Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas, as a dark-horse candidate for 2008. A cursory search fails to reveal whether Sebelius's husband Gary, son of former Congressman Keith Sebelius, is of Finnish descent, or related in any way to the great symphonist. (Via Alex Star.) [For more information, see Michael Kaulkin, with additional comments by Ingram Marshall.]

Pandora's half-empty box

In the course of a lively critics' conversation at ArtsJournal, Terry Teachout recommended something called Pandora, which is supposed to "help me discover more music that I'll like." You enter the name of an artist or song, and it suggests more music in the same vein. I'm afraid I had bad luck with the device on my first few tries. I typed in "Mahler." It said:

We found several. Which 'Mahler' did you mean?

— The Mausker, by Deerhoof
— Masher, by the Mountain Goats
— Madner, by Underworld
— Madder, by Groove Armada

I then typed in "Debussy." It said: "Do you want 'Debussie' by Daphne Loves Derby?" Not right now.

Update: Maryann Devine has queried Pandora on this issue. She was told that "classical music is so complex that they haven't been able to incorporate it into their algorithm." Mm-hm. To play fair, I entered "Simple Twist of Fate," my favorite Dylan song. I got Neil Young's "Thrasher," another all-time favorite, together with other songs from Blood on the Tracks and a bunch of strummy stuff I didn't immediately care about.

Update 2: Ace young composer Timothy Andres points out that the similarly constituted Last FM site has assimilated notational music, up to a point. Type in "Mahler," and you receive recommendations ranging from the obvious Bruckner to the less obvious Leadbelly to the one and only Дмитрий Шостакович.

Condi's at it again

Here's another fascinating glimpse into the musical mind of our Secretary of State, whom Tony Tommasini recently interviewed in depth for the Times. Her current playlist includes Mozart's D-Minor Piano Concerto, Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love," Aretha Franklin's "Respect," Kool and the Gang's "Celebration," Brahms's Second Piano Concerto and F-Minor Piano Quintet, anything by U2*, Elton John's "Rocket Man," Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.

*A conspiracy-minded reader wonders whether this choice is in any way related to the fact that U2's Bono is the guest editor of the special edition of The Independent in which the list appears. Musical taste dictated by cultural context? Surely not!

Salome day

Tidbits

1) Geoff Edgers is writing an arts blog at the Boston Globe. 2) Congratulations to Jeremy Eichler, who will succeed Richard Dyer as the Globe's chief critic. My alarmism of last year was unwarranted. 3) Ernst Toch's Gesprochene Musik, or Spoken Music, one of the great experiments of Weimar-era Berlin, is about to receive its first complete performance since 1930. It will be heard in June as part of a program by the Christopher Caines dance company, at New York's City Center. The final movement, "Geographical Fugue," is a longtime choral favorite; here's a rendition by the Lycoming College Choir.

Babbitt at 90

Very warm birthday wishes to Milton Babbitt, who turns ninety today. The composer is fêted tonight in a concert at Carnegie's Weill Hall, which includes works from various stages of his vast career. You can get a sense of Babbitt's rapid-fire intellect — entirely undimmed by age, as I can attest from seeing him last week — in this 2001 NewMusicBox interview, which ranges from state of twelve-tone composition to the state of beer. Asked if he steers students in the serialist direction, he says, "God no! I mean who am I to send these people to their death? No, absolutely not. I try to come to terms with what they want to do." The only topic that stumps him is hip-hop: "What is all this scratching of records?" (There is also, I must say, an inexact description of the New Yorker's music issue of 2001.) Difficult only on the surface, Babbitt's music exhibits, like his conversation, a deeply playful view of the world.

Worth reading

1) Steve Hicken's homage to Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, courtesy of The High Hat; 2) George Hunka's interview with pianist Marilyn Nonken; 3) Richard Dyer on Osvaldo Golijov's teaching session with a teen-aged composing prodigy; 4) high-concept pranks at Improv Everywhere, esp. Chekhov's Barnes & Noble reading (via Standing Room); 5) new O. C. blog by Timothy Mangan.

2nd anniversary issue

"I have four razors and a dictaphone."
— Andrey Tarkovsky, 1979

Many thanks to all who have visited the blog over the past two years — just short of a million hits.

Photo: Actor Brad Pitt in the role of Claude Debussy. 

Osmo's cosmos

At NewMusicBox, the gifted young composer Sean Shepherd is reporting from the Minnesota Orchestra's Reading Sessions and Composer Institute, where his toughly argued, gripping piece surface tension is about to receive a performance.