Maltin, Leonard. Great American Broadcast. New York: Dutton, 1997
I bought this book for my research on radio music before WWII. After reading some pages, I found this book not directory for my subject, and the book is probably not intended for academic purpose. Nevertheless, the book gives me interesting insights of the "golden age" of the radio broadcasting. There seems to have been a lot of "hope" and "hype" in the broadcasting world. Radio was such a big entertainment media at that time, much more people are interested in and involved in the whole activity. Many illustration gives concerte idea of the age.
Rochberg, George. "No Center." The Composer 1/2 (1969): 86-99.
It is hard to understand what the author want to say in the article. It is a kind of monologue, probably not intended for various reader but for those who would be interested in his thoughts. At reast, I can sense that he is lamenting about the world of art music in the sixties. Probably he is saying that the musical creation is not an intellectual but poetic work. He seems to cry for the music for more people. He wants to chose the past as he wishes, not controlled by it.
I felt Rochberg's strong passion to write out something. But sometimes, I have to feel that what he says does not communicate. I am saying this not because I want to condemn this writing but because I feel that there may be a better way to put his burning ideas, probably in a more accessible manner.
Gottlieb, Jack. "Symbols of Faith of Leonard Bernstein." The Musical Quarterly 46/2 (April 1980): 287-95.
The artiel mainly talks about Bernstein's The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No. 2) and the implication of the biblical meaning. Gottlieb, for examle, quote one passage from the "Masque" from W. H. Auden's poem and compores it to the texts from Psalms. I am not sure if this comparision is valid, because Bernstein did not intend to have a close relationship between his symphony and the poem, and he did not imply anything religious in his program notes for the symphony.
Gottlieb also talks about an intersting insight of the motive of "Epilogue," which, according to him, seems to refer to the name Jehova, by using four musical notes. It is a sort of spelling names by using notes, probably similar to "Bach" examples, but in a more suble manner. Since I do not know Hebrew, I have never noticed this "musical spelling," and I found this argument very interesting.
Flores, Constantine. Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies. Trans. by Vernon and Jutta Wicker.
A good introductory book for Mahler's ten symphonies (including the Cook movements). Each chapter talks a specific symphony. The discussion consists of biographical background and formal analysis of a symphony. I like the analyses section, because Flores tries to identify the dividing point of each movement of a symphony. This is very important, because such information serves as a good starting point for any reader to think about Mahler's inventive and eccentric nature. A more advanced readers may disagree his analysis, but they still will be benefited from this book.
Patterson, Beverly Bush. The Sound of the Dove: Singing in Appalachian Primitive Baptist Church.
Probably the reason I bought this book was not so adademic. I found this book at a book exibition in Boston, and it was sold with a cassette tape. Also it is a part of various American musical traditions, which I am interested in.
When I received the book and tape from the publisher, the first thing I did was to play the recording created to accompany the book. I think that was a good idea, because I was immediately captured by one of the most powerful and "beautufil" human music.
The word "beatiful" needs some attention to musicians, because the sense of beauty differs from one person to another. And the beauty of this singing is not one from a professional, refined singers. From my point of view, the beauty of professional singing differs from the beauty of congregational, devotional singing, which is discussed in this book.
Some might have noticed the word "primitive" in the title of the book. I think that word might be a little misleading. Although there is no elaborated musical training involved in this musical training, the music is not primitive but highly comprex and way far from plain and immature.
This music is in a religious tradition, but it is also music for the folk. It might not a genre of popular music but very different from concert music.
As a read the book, I could get into this unique musical tradition and realized how powerful and meaningful an oral musical transmission would be.
Hakim, Joy. A History of US: From Colonies to Country.
The book is intended for childern who wants to learn about American history. It is not totally an academic book, but I like readint this ten-volume A History of US series very much. Because every volume is written in plain English, avoiding specialized terms (and there are colums that introduce the reader new words for a better understanding of the historical narrative). It also uses many illustrations and pictures (most of them monocrome, however). College textbooks are O. K. to me, but for a spare time, I might resort myself to this series.
Five words of the Week
aptitude
1. An inherent ability, as for learning; a talent.
2. Quickness in learning and understanding; intelligence.
3. The condition or quality of being suitable; appropriateness.
erode
1. To wear (something) away by or as if by abrasion.
2. To eat into; corrode.
3. To make or form by wearing away.
4. To cause to diminish, deteriorate, or disappear as if by eating into or wearing away.
infiltrate
1.a. To pass (troops, for example) surreptitiously into enemy-held territory. b. To penetrate with hostile intent.
2. To enter or take up positions in gradually or surreptitiously, as for purposes of espionage or takeover.
3. To cause (a liquid, for example) to permeate a substance by passing through its interstices or pores.
4. To permeate (a porous substance) with a liquid or gas.
confiscation < confiscate
1. To seize (private property) for the public treasury.
2. To seize by or as if by authority.
innocuous
1. Having no adverse effect; harmless.
2. Not likely to offend or provoke to strong emotion; insipid.
Persichetti, Vincent and Robert E. Page. "In Quest of Answers: An Interview with Vincent Persichetti." The Choral Journal 14/3 (November 1973): 4-8.
I like composers' writings very much, because these writing not only help us to understand their music but also stimulate our serious thinking on musical world. Composers have been always taken music very seriously, and many of them have been involved in a large world of musical community: other composers, performers, critiques, and audiences. Persichetti talks about how he gets inspiration for choral works, how he works with various texts, and how he would accept commissions. He, interestingly, also talks about his position in the twentieth-century music history. He says that he was not a part of so-called "avant-garde" movement, but he tried to utilize anything what is available to him. In the United States, European sense of avant-garde does not always prevail, partly because some composers just do not like to be tied to a specific musical language and keep their music to their own. I think such an attitude is healty.
Barry, Dave. Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of The United States.
I have been reading his books quite a while. The first book I have read was Barry Dave Does Japan, which may be a good introduction to the Japanese culture (although readers must be careful to know what is fact and what is his fabrication). This book, on American history, is more in a narrative manner than just a travel essays. Readers probably need a good amount of knowledge of American history before reading this humor book, but those who do not know about the history also might enjoy the way he put things. I like the way he uses footnotes and index in this book. Before reading his books, I never thought that these marginal things make people laugh.
Wingfield, R. D. Night Frost.
It is one of four books from Wingfield'd Frost series. This British writer creates an usual detective story. The protagonist is not totally a hard-boiled cop, but he is badly-organized, make stupid remarks on what he saw, and lead his hunch totally into his investigation, sometimes. Interstingly, however, he frequently comes up with very interesting insights and finds something no other people come up with. His collegues at a police station somehow trust him because of Frost's special ability, but have strange relationship with him.
So many homicide cases happen throughout the book, and it is not easy to keep up with all the information presented. Since I have not finish this book, I do not know what happens at the end. But my friend told me that everything is very interesting connected to lead a surprising conclusion, which I have to wait for a while.
The English is very different from what I have read so far. Especially I have a hard time with many words I have never seen before. Maybe some of them are idiomatic to British English.
Bukofzer, Manfred F. Music in the Baroque Era. New York: Norton, 1947.
A classic textbook on the baroque music in general. More focus on musical styles than historical context. This is concisely written, it is easy to follow his discussion. Although I have not listened to many of the pieces he discusses in this book, his narrative arouse my curiosity. I think that is very important for any textbook in any subject. The information in the book is certainly a little dated, I think, but it is worth to browse the content (I have been reading some parts of this book, especially parts I know of from other books on the same subject).
Temperley, Nicholas. "The Old Way of Singing: Its Origins and Development." Journal of the American Musicological Society 34/3 (Fall 1981): 511-44.
Quite an extensive research on "old way" of hymn singing. The old way roughly means the tradition of singing that based on the written hymn tunes but deviates from the writtein tradition because the congregations learn the tunes orally.
It is interesting to know that in the Western culture, oral music seems to be treated less important or less sophisticated than written music. Probably Europeans and Americans alike value the elaborated compositional techniques only possible with written music. And improvisation from the written music took place, free deviation, unlike "controlled" improvisation seen in Baroque music, has not been considered a type of "serious" music.
Machlis, Joseph and Kristine Forney. The Enjoyment of Music. 7th ed. Chronological Version. New York: Norton, 1995.
One of the most popular "musical appriciation" textbooks used in the United States. The narrative in this "chronological version" is historical, even though the book uses some musical terms. Since this book is intended for non-music majors, difficult musical terms are carefully avoided. I think that describing music without using so many musical terms is not an easy task. This book does not go too below the university's academic standard, but it does not go too far away from general reader's knowledge on music. I have not read this book so much, since I am not teaching apprication classes, but for my future reference, I would read it for a while this week.
Reibner, Beth and Janie Spencer. Frommer's Japan: The Best of Tokyo and the Countryside. 4th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1998.
Strange, yes. I am reading a travel guide for my country! I am going to Kyoto this summer, and I need information on inns and hotels. Barns and Nobles has several travel books on Japan, but this one seems very informative, well-written, and updated. The information is very concerte and up-to-the-point. I especially like the part in which the authors mention safty problems in Japan. He knows about the Aum cult group and more recent middle-school murderer.
Other books seems more general and historical, rather than practical and personal. And personal information, sometimes, is more interesting and valuable than official facts from other books on Japan. We leave culture studies to different books in libraries.
Of course, all the above is my humble, personal opinion. The only problem of this book would be the expensive price.
Berlinsky, Herman. "Bernstein's Mass." Sacred Music99/1 (Spring 1972): 3-8.
The author talks about the nature of Bernstein's Mass from a theological point of view. He is very critical about the piece and introduced nagative responce to the piece's premier in New York. Also, he suspects if the Mass is really considered to be a "sacred music," because the piece uses so-called "popular music" idioms and instruments. The inclusion of musical-type choir singing and the use of electronic keyboard and guiter are examples. The piece also includes chreography which does not present or represent anything.
A simple listening of this piece, on the other hand, is a very exciting experience. Bernstein's pieces are always emotional, probably intuitively. Although he was an intellectual person, his music does not ask listeners to pursue profound thinking while they listen to the piece.
Berlinsky says that this is not a religious piece, but for me, what is the point of clasifying a piece into a some category, if the piece is interesting and exciting.
But I have to admit that, comparing to other more successful pieces, such as West Side Story and On the Town, the Mass does not appeal as a popular piece and is not as creative as other American serious music.
Five words of the week
schizophrenia.
Any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations, and accompanied in varying degrees by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual disturbances.
pretension.
1. A specious allegation; a pretext.
2. A claim to something, such as a privilege or right.
3. The advancing of a claim.
4. Ostentatious display; pretentiousness.
vacuous
1. Devoid of matter; empty.
2.a. Lacking intelligence; stupid. b. Devoid of substance or meaning; inane. c. Devoid of expression; vacant.
3. Lacking serious purpose or occupation; idle.
ancillary
1. Subordinate.
2. Auxiliary; helping.
futility < futile
Having no useful result.
Short, Bradley Howard. "American Radio Opera: 1928-1971." MA thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986.
This is a very informative research on radio opera. Although only two pieces are analysed throughly, the rest of the thesis are good summary of works, resource guide, and bibliography.
Since my dissertation's topic is on American compositions commissioned by radio stations, this thesis serves as a substantial research guide, from which I know more about where I have to send letter to get what I need for the dissertation.
This thesis would be much better if there were more background information, with which we can have broader knowledge of radio opera in radio history or in our society. But Mr. Short's work is well researched and very useful for feature scholars.
Borgman, George Allen. "Nationalism in Contemporary American Music." MA thesis, Indiana University, 1953.
I know this is not a new thesis on this topic, but it does talk nicely about the degree of nationalism in concerte musical works. According to the author, there are three kinds of "nationalism": (1) an intended or conscious nationalism, (2) an unintended or unconscious nationalism, and (3) an "intangible nationalism."
The first category includes the pieces with the title reflective of certain nationality. The pieces like "American Festival Overture," or "New York Profile" are examples. I am not sure if the fact a composer was born in the United States counts, but probably the use of American instruments would. The inclusion of the banjo in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue is an example.
The second one is rather difficult to pindown. He, in fact, explains that this is not real nationalism. He gives "the use of jazz idiom," and says that American composers may uncounsiously use the jazz idiom. May be or may be not.
Third one is not nationalism, according to him. He gave Roy Harris's Third Symphony as an example. Surely there is no apparent nationality involved in this title. The symphony came from Europe. But many critics and scholars believe that this symphony is an American work. In my thesis, I call such a phenomenan "public consensus," a term given by one of FSU's professor Dr. Michael Bakan. The composer may not have intended an explicit Americanism, but one critic said that he imagined expanses of Western Kansas, and the broadning prairie night.
It is very interesting what makes a piece an Amercan piece.
Auden, W. H. The Age of Anxiety.
I orderd this book because there is a symphony based on this poem. It is Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 "The Age of Anxiety." The composer said that he did not intend to follow the poem closely but was inspired by the poem.
Since I am not accustomed to read any modern poem, it was not easy to understand what this poem is about. But from the basic continuation of the plot, I feel that this "baroque ecloque" is something about WWII, and the youth's profound feelings derived from the war and its succeeding age. I heard that Leonard Bernstein's father was an active pacifist (?) and Bernstein may have had anti-war sentiment. That might be why this poem is so appealing to the composer.
Recently my friend told me that Bernstein quoted "Ain't Got No Tears Left" of his musical On the Town in the symphony. He asked if there is any intention of Bernstein of quoting previously-used material. As I investigating, actually, the song "Ain't Got No Tears Left" was composed for the musical indeed, but have never sung in the actual New York premier. There are two more songs that have been cut, acccording to the liner notes to On the Town, recorded by Tilson Thomas on Deutsch Grammophon label. To varyfy the information, we have to look for personal documents that would say something about it, but if I speculate, it is possible that the composer Bernstein used the tune "Ain't Got No Tears Left" in his symphony, because the tune was not used in the musical On the Town and Bernstein wanted to use it somewhere. Or since he was too busy touring around the world while composing the symphony, he just have reused the material from the past.
Cowell, Henry. "Paul Creston." The Musical Quarterly 34 (1948): 533-43.
This is not a straightfoward, chronological account of an American composer, Paul Creston. It is rather Henry Cowell's personal introduction and passionate portrait of this composer. Henry Cowell, as an editor, helped Creston with his first publication of composition. Cowell also helped him to do the first public concert.
Therefore, a part of the article can be seen as a memoir, too. The author Cowell quote Creston's letters to describe Creston's aesthetics in his composition. The letter reveals insightful view of Creston, and it is a significant document when one wants to talk about Creston's music.
Those who need more updated information on Creston need to consult to Bio-Bibliography available from Greenwood, but this is very intersting to read, too, because the writing is not dry and too "academic."
Pace, Ian. "Positive or Negative 1: Ian Pace Introduces the Early Music of Helmut Lachenmann." The Musical Times 139/1859 (January 1998): 9-17.
I heard some pieces by Lachenmann before. Many of them are quite dossonant and use unusual instrumental sounds. This article is one of a few on Lachenmann in the English language.
The author knows many pieces of the featured composer and seem to have analysed his pieces casually. However, his discussion is not totally analytical in terms of the investigation of Lachenmann's writing style.
This article is a critical (in a journalistic way) survey of his music with his personal impression and with somehow technical discussions of Lachenmann's musical language. The article might not be for those who have not yet listened to his music, because some parts of the article are dedicated to the discussion of specific pieces. Although musical examples might help readers, it is not totally fun to follow the argument unless readers know the pieces discussed.