send in the clowns (12. 107)

Known as the Bohemian Sousa for his vast body of works including marches, polkas and waltzes, we are introduced to the military bandmaster, conductor and composer Julius Ernest Wilhelm Fučík outside of Czech ceremonial and patriotic music via his opus sixty-eight, written in October 1897 whilst stationed in Sarajevo for the Austro-Hungarian Army, originally titled “Grande Marche Chromatique,” in reference to the climbing and descending scales used throughout, but retitled based on his personal interest in the Roman Empire and impressed by a particular scene in Quo Vadis? to Vjezd gladiátorů (Entrance of the Gladiators). Adapted for piano and later for woodwind orchestra, the air renamed to “Thunder and Blazes,” became up tempo synonymous by the turn of the century with circuses and anticipated the procession of clowns. Despite this well-established and enduring association (see also, see above), the popular piece was used accompany the arrival and departure of SS commandants in Nazi concentration camps.

directors’ cut (12. 063)

What an absolute gift to be able to watch an individual being paid tribute while they can still be part of it. Via Nag on the Lake, we are directed to this brilliant music video from Spike Jonze and Mary Wigmore from Coldplay’s new album, Moon Music, for the track “All My Love,” which together with the band they turned into a moving early birthday celebration for Dick Van Dyke (*1925) who sang and danced and was joined by his extended family. Chris Martin on piano delights at the end with an impromptu song about growing old for Van Dyke.

akademie (11. 204)

Held on this day in 1808 at the venue of Theatre an der Wien, the benefit concert—orchestral symphonies at the time referred to as academies and because of the year’s performance schedule and booked out concert halls (no summertime performances were held as the influential aristocracy left the city over those months for their country estates and space was given over to rehearsals for operas as the higher status productions during the winter with only the weeks of Advent and Lent available for purely musical concerts)—of Ludwig van Beethoven, conducted by the composer himself and incredibly debuting his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Choral Fantasy and Fourth Piano Concerto, for the musicians’ “deserving widows” fund was a four hour affair in the bitter cold of the theatre and suffered in terms of audience reception. Rather incensed with the shoehorning of so much new material into one block, Beethoven’s former teacher Antonio Salieri organised a counter-concert—on the same day—with proceeds going to the same cause, although the relationship between the two warmed again shortly afterwards—Beethoven’s fame spreading by those who had been in attendance and admittedly overwhelmed by the scope of the evening (too much of a good thing) and eager to have a chance to digest individual movements more slowly and at one’s leisure. The entire programme as performed as been recreated a number of times since.

lux æterna (10. 854)

Ahead of the composer’s centenary tribute from the Proms, the Guardian profiles the life and career of influential, dissident virtuoso György Ligeti whose work informed the likes of John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Radiohead, and rather infamously used by the director in 2001: A Space Odyssey to frame pivotal moments without the artist’s full permission, Stanley Kubrick opting not to use the work commissioned for the soundtrack and using public domain classic orchestral arrangements instead. 2001 is by far not his lasting legacy, having created many evocative and innovative works, like an arrangement for one hundred metronomes, but his plexiglass Ehrengrab (1923 - 2006) in Vienna’s Central Cemetery looks as if it could have been fashioned from the original Monolith. Read more about the progressive compositions of Ligeti at the link up top. Below is one of his final works, the 2003 reworking of the Hamburg Concerto with distempered tuning.

learning fast as the weeks went past (10. 519)

Recorded in the studios of Château d’Hérouville during the previous summer and put out as a pre-release for the forthcoming sixth studio album Don’t Shoot Me—I’m Only the Piano Player, the lead single by Elton John and Bernie Taupin climbed to the top of the charts in the US on this day in 1973—becoming the duo’s first number one hit in America—holding its position for three weeks. Played on a Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) electric organ—derisively to imitate the nostalgic sounds of songs that sounds better in our memories though a popular instrument for Led Zepplin, Blondie, Pink Floyd and the B-52s—‘Crocodile Rock’ is a tribute to the Australian group Daddy Cool’s ‘Eagle Rock’ as a fun side project. While acknowledgedly derivative and escapist (and a number he stopped enjoying performing), John didn’t expect it to prove so popular and even rising to a lawsuit alleging plagiarism from the estate of the writer of the Pat Boone novelty song ‘Speedy Gonzales’ for the chord progression and falsetto. The matter was settled out of court.

thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me (10. 328)

Beginning on this day in 1975 and lasting for nine weeks, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, the six-minute, multi-part musical suite referred by author Freddie Mercury as a “mock opera” released as a lead single (B-side, “I’m in Love with My Car”) from their studio album A Night at the Opera hit the top of UK’s charts. For the promotional video—credited with spurring on the complementary medium—and for the band’s UK tour, Mercury played on a Bechstein concert grand piano, which was—according to lore—the same one that Paul McCartney used for recording “Hey Jude” and David Bowie’s “Hunky Dory.”

6x6

pontifices maximi: the denatured bridges of euro notes 

top banana: the fruit label collecting community—via Weird Universe  

toccata and fugue: Bach’s compositions—see previously—from eight perspectives  

trolley problem: pedestrians recruited involuntarily in self-driving car trials—see also 

trivia killed the video star: a look back on how quiz games replaced arcade fascination  

soli cui fas vidisse minervam: polymath Lauri Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti, nacknamed after the goddess of wisdom, first salaried female professor

6x6

berggeschrei: Saxon princes collected, modelled miniature mountains and enjoyed miner cos-play 

#oddlysatisfying: the hypnotic and self-soothing qualities of visual ASMR  

it’s not a cult thing: an interview with the real estate agent selling this ‘sexy funeral Goth house’ in Baltimore—via Super Punch  

erard square action: a tool that measures a piano key’s up- and down-weight  

slamilton: a basketball musical of Space Jam meshed with Hamilton—see previously—that works better than it should, via Waxy  

den hügel hinauf: Amanda Gorman’s inspirational US presidential inaugural poem (see also) will be published in German

prepared piano

We were happy to be introduced to a new type of technique, intervention signature to French composer and pianist Benoît Delbecq’s style and showcased in his latest album “Weight of Light.” Inspired by John Cage’s 1938 Bacchanale, the preparation involves careful selection and placement of items, reeds and twigs being Delbecq’s preferred disruptors, between or on the strings and hammers to create a mysterious, uncanny timbre outside of the instrument’s characteristic range, as illustrated in the video below.

glissando

Digging into the discography of Scott Bradlee’s and his interpretation of the American Song Book, Miss Cellania treats us to a very jazzy merging of George Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue and Queen’s 1975 suite from A Night at the Opera. A talented composer and arranger, Bradlee is also a frequent collaborator with the rotating musical collective Postmodern Jukebox, an initiative he founded in 2011, the same year as he created this musical number, and has since amassed a huge following, attracted guest artists and has held concert tours, performing contemporary popular music in the style of Big Band, swing, cabaret, Dixieland, ragtime or doo-wop.

deceptive cadence

The always marvellous Nag on the Lake brings us a pleasant performance of the first digits of the mathematical constant π composed for piano by David Macdonald in the key of A minor.
The music is underscored with a series of factoids about the number, including the supposition that every possible sequence of numbers—a string of perfectly consecutive numbers, lottery winners, one’s past and future cell phone numbers—is contained in the infinite series but it’s never proven until calculated out, many argue. That piece of knowledge made me recall that I’ve encountered this quandary before—formalised as the Kate Bush Conjecture, wherein the singer on a 2005 album sings π to seventy-eight decimal places before skipping ahead to the one hundred thirty-seventh. The theory was advanced, arguing that that sequence would be found somewhere within the number, just not at the beginning. Infinite yet non-random, π is suspected to have that property though it remains unproven.

player-piano or à quatre mains

I did enjoy seeing this demonstration called “Andante” by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Tangible Media Group, which aims to reformat performances as interactive, collaborative and engaging for all the senses. Figures gallop and dance over the keyboard with the music and the video of the duet (piano four hands) is really amazing, and I bet such a show could be a tutor for instrument-lessons.

moog or ham-and-eggs, hammond organs

The other day, I ventured to a flea-market advertized beyond the former border dividing East and West Germany, which turned out to be more like a party held at a abandoned aircraft hangar crammed full of personal Ostalogie, random items from DDR times.
It was neat to wonder around aisles of piles, but after hearing a radio retrospective of East Germany’s part not only in electronic music, like Kraftwerk who were early-adopters, but in electronic instruments, as well, I wish I had been paying more attention. It turns out that the electronic keyboard, the organ with the basso-nova beat, had its origins (building on some earlier, native discoveries) in the factories of the VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke, by Plauen, in 1972 as the VERMONA, the ET-6. Of course, these factories made other iconic and traditional instruments, like Weltmeister accordions, juke-boxes, and pianos, but the VERMONA and later incarnations really spiked a revolution in sound and how music was made. I am sure there was such an innovative electric organ warehoused there, and although I don’t believe we have the immediate talent to contribute to the retro-legacy musically, I would like to be able to tickle the ivories that oversaw so much change.