The Bear Necessities

3) Inspired by my most recent trip to Ravinia, where I heard the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) perform some of Wagner’s overtures - Rienzi, Der Fliegende Hollander (The Flying Dutchman), and Tannhauser, I have decided to write a little bit about Wagner’s most impressive work, Der Ring Des Nibelungen. Der Ring Des Nibelungen, or The Ring of the Nibelungs, or The Ring Cycle, is a series of four operas telling one monumental story. Now, I feel it is important to have some familiarity with this work because, well, it reappears everywhere. The names of the four operas are: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung (all umlauts have been ommitted). Die Walkure (or Valkyrie if you prefer) has very prominent them that I am sure you have heard. The Ride of the Valkyries can be heard in Apocalypse Now being blasted by the American helicopters as they ride into battle (an amazing scene) as well as in the Loony Toons parody of Wagner’s operas (”kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit…”). The plot of The Ring Cycle follows the life of, well, a ring. The ring is forged by an evil God and then cursed. It falls into the hands of the hero who undergoes much torment and eventually dies. At his funeral (or after im not quite sure) the ring is thrown back into the abyss from which it was originally forged (in this case the Rhein). With the destruction of the ring comes a paradigm shift as the old gods are thrown down and the world is reborn. Sound familiar? Well, it should, because Tolkien did indeed borrow from Wagner in the creation of The Lord of the Rings. Lets take a look at the conclusion to the cycle. The last opera is entitled Gotterdammerung, which translated means “Damnation of the Gods” or perhaps more fitting/romantic “Twilight of the Gods”. I bring this up because recently I was playing a little computer game I bought called Warcraft III, and one of the final single player levels was entitled “Twilight of the Gods”. Evidently there are some cultured folks over at Blizzard. On a musical note, Wagner pioneered a technique called leitmotif in which each character/idea/force/occurence has its own theme that is played whenever that character appears (sorry about the pun up there…). This may remind you of Star Wars (and if it doesn’t, well, read on and then say “oh yeah! i remember that!”) in which there are specific themes for different people. Luke has his own heroic theme, Obi-wan (the old one) has his “use the force” theme, Darth Vader has the imperial march, and Leia has her own little romantic-sounding ditty. All because of Wagner. Pretty darn amazing if you ask me. Now go forth, and find more allusions to The Ring in the world.
(sorry, that was kinda long… i hope it was interesting…)

2) Have you noticed all of the previews/commercials for the new Harrison Ford movie “K-19: The Widowmaker”? This is not a judgement on the movie but, I have noticed that in these previews they play music from the soundtrack of “Gladiator”. To me, that seems to imply that the director/producer/what have you did not have the money/desire/devotion to quality to see that good music was written for K-19. This lack forced the preview makers to turn to a soundtrack that has already been proven successful, namely, the “Gladiator” soundtrack (ok, so maybe that was a judgement on the movie). Of course, another answer may be that the film makers didn’t want to tip there hand and give their music away. Interestingly, when the movie “U-571″ came out, it also played music from another movie in its preview (It played music from “Glory” - an excellent movie by the way, I highly recommend it). I don’t remember the music from “U-571″, so, maybe that is an indication that it was not particularly good (although, admittedly, I probably don’t remember the music from most movies). Now the odd thing is that “K-19″ and “U-571″ are the only two previews that I can recall playing music from other movies. Maybe it is a submarine thing? Anyways, I just though I’d share this little tidbit, fresh from the frying pan. I’m sure one of you movie afficionados out there will tell me that using music from other soundtracks in a preview is a normal part of the movie business, but hey, into the fire right?

Ok, so i was on my way to my orchestra concert last night (which went pretty darn well methinks) and i was listening to the radio. You know what they were playing?? Dvorak’s Cello Concerto! Now, this was a remarkable coincidence since this piece just happened to be on the program for my concert!

Obviously, i was fairly excited (like really, really excited). Now, i was driving along, having a grand old time and piece, you know, just gonna went along as usual until the last half of the third movement. and DO YOU KNOW what happened then???

THEY STOPPED THE PIECE SO THEY COULD GIVE THE WEATHER. i was shocked. outraged. APPALLED. I mean, what kind of MONKEYS do they have running that operation??? to stop a beautiful piece in the middle of the last movement for the WEATHER?? It was absolutely outrageous. Like a slap in the face. It’s a damn shame they are the only classical station around here (especially since their choice of music about 2/3 of the time really blows).

Nonetheless, the concert went off well! tuning held together (for the most part) and my chops were alive! makes me so happy when the notes just pop right off like they were last night. so motivational. i feel like practicing.

I was plugged in at work today and was kinda thinkin that there are some songs that I never really get tired of.

Ive mentioned a few of these before (ahem, evanescence) but some others to add to this list:
Wheatus - A little respect (a cover, but I really like the sound of their lead singer)
Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
Four Non-Blondes - What’s going on

I’ve discoverd an alternative to my mp3 player at work : Internet Radio!! This is an intersesting little beast, you see, cause there are lots of different channels to choose from, if you know how to find them. At first i didnt, so i basically did google searches for internet radio and turned up a bunch of random places. For the most part this sucked cause while i found music i liked, they never seemed to play more than 1 mvmt of a piece at a time (quite possibly one of the most frustrating things EVER).

That is, of course, until munie told me about live365 - a fairly conveniant site for internet radio listening. They actually played stuff all the way through! And dvorak’s cello concerto was like the 2nd song i heard on this station (it was one of the pieces i had in mind when choosing which particular channel to listen to (it was actually kinda not good, cause I was really thirsty, but couldn’t leave my desk and miss out on the music…))!!

Of course, the sound quality DOES leave something to be desired. But hey, that’s the price you pay for variety. And the nice thing about not being able to see the days playlist is that I never feel bad about leaving my desk and missing stuff. If I could see the list, then I would never leave cause I wouldn’t want to miss the good stuff coming!

Well, along the lines of favorite this’ and favorite thats, I have decided to post a few of my favorite one-line song lyrics. You get special points if you know what songs they are from.

First, an easy one:
“…sleight of hand and twist of fate…”

and, a hard one:
“…this song is the cross that I bear…”

as i write this, i realize that these one-line lyrics are actually pretty unmeaningful without the actual music behind them. That is unfortunate because I was actually pretty excited earlier today when i thought of the idea for this post.

mooo.

So, ive decided that i really really really like evanescence. their music really appeals to me for some reason. i dunno why.

i think maybe its the semi-dark and emotional tone of their music (kinda why i like Mahler and Les Mis so much too - esp over all of that andrew lloyd weber stuff).

In all of my excitement to post my favorite classical tunes i forgot all about my favorite jazz charts!

So, here are a couple:
Ellington’s arrangement of Nutcracker and Peer Gynt. Yes, the Duke is the man.
Stan Kenton’s Malaguena. An absolutely incredible brass sound. I would easily join a jazz band just to play this song.
And of course, the two songs that always make me want to dance (conveniantly, one fast and one slow): Sing Sing Sing, and Mack the Knife.

So, I was listening to sibelius 5 today (ok, not really today, but last thursday when i wrote this thought down in an email to myself) and for some reason the mp3 I have of it has a skip in it about 15 sec from the end of the finale! It definitely had to be one of the most upsetting moments of my day. Now, I was just thinking, “hey, this is a real cool piece, id like to play it!” and then sitting there soaking in the big brass sound when suddenly crack! And silence… oh man I was sooooo flumoxed. I felt like I just been battleaxed between the eyes or something it was horrible…

Don’t let it happen to you.

Trivia of the day: what was the reason for the first “Houston, we have a problem” transmission? No fair googling!

Id really like to play some richard strauss sometime. Vielleicht eine alpine sinfonie (!!!), oder Till eulenspiegel (!), oder don juan, oder tod und verklarung

Now, for the pieces that are awesome in their power, the kind where you revel in the majesty of the moment.

To begin with, we should start with the Finale to the Pines of Rome (via Appia) (Resphigi). This is one extended (and very loud) blow. however, i would have to say that it is eclipsed by:
The Great Gate of Kiev (Pictures again). This one gets loud and stays that way, and then it SLOWS DOWN. the brass are literally falling out of their chairs by the end. But, you gotta love the bricks of sound getting pumped out of the back row.
Speaking of bricks, lets not forget Verdi’s Tuba Mirum (the brass fanfare in the Requiem). And while we are at it both Mozart’s and Verdi’s Dies Irae are powerful moments.
Next to Mozart’s Dies Irae is the Confutatis (all from the Requiem). All in all, i would have to say the Requiem’s are two of my favorite pieces.
Back to Prokofiev, the Montagues and the Capulets from his R&J is a great moment.
As a trombone player i feel obligated to mention Wagner. The Ride, Siegfried’s Funeral March, and the Intro to Act III of Lohengrin are all solid choices.
And who can forget Mahler 5. Two moments in particular come to mind. First, the trombone soli at the very end of the finale - my trombone teacher once described that entrance as “cataclysmic” and from that moment on I was in love (not with him, the music). Second is the bass trombone solo (okok, i think it is also played by the celli and tuba) in the back half of the second mvmt. I heard the CSO play this one at Ravinia (yay for free concerts!) and the sound that charley vernon (the bass trombonist) belted out was so thick you could bathe in it. Truly incomparable.

Till next time!