Listening to a cat bathing

As I drive I leave myself at the mercy of the radio presenters of ABC Classic FM. Little did I suspect Greta Bradman would make me listen to a cat bathing. Specifically, Hiroshige's cat, not a cat I know even. It was a wonderful experience, and I'll listen to it again.

Hiroshige's Cat Bathing is part of Alan Hovaness's Piano Sonata, Op 366, so it's not as weird as all that. It's a languorous piece, perfect for a Sunday morning, and oddly meticulous - so just like a cat bathing itself. 

So I highly recommend checking it out for two reasons. First because it is beautiful, and second so you can tell people you're listening to Hiroshige's Cat Bathing, just for the reaction.

Swoon - A New Classic 100 Countdown

So ABC Classic FM has announced its next Classic 100 and it's Swoon! Now there's an exciting and potentially divisive theme for a countdown.

The only definition hinted at in the About page (found here) is 'a little parcel of rapture' and really there's not much more that can be said about it. It's music that carries you away for a while, let's you sit in quiet contemplation outside the hustle and bustle of the world around and within.

And that's going to change from person to person. I have many swoons in the 'pop' music world for instance that many voters in this countdown would consider horrific noise.

That said, I think over the years of Swooning on the ABC a certain nebulous 'feel' can be applied to the theme, but I still expect some way out choices. But there's some obvious favourites too. If Debussy's Clair de lune isn't in the top 10 for instance I'll post a video of me attempting to pirouette on YouTube. I also expect the adagio from Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez, Faure's Pavane, Massenet's Meditation from Thais and of course Canteloube's darn Bailero (which I can't stand) to do well.

I'm hoping for some Australian entries. Koehne's Selfish Giant features in part in the old Swoon box set and is one of my favourites on there. I also think Kats-Chernin's Wild Swans, Edwards' Dawn Mantra and Sculthorpe's Left Bank Waltz (another from the old set) should be in there.

The more immediate question is what to nominate for the list ... watch this space. Expect Ippolitov-Ivanov and some Russians. And Mozart. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin ... dang it they all wrote good swoons.

The grey matter is twitching and the heart is looking forward to drifting in peace.

Voting is Open

Well, the final voting list is up and voting has commenced. I totally missed the nomination period so I can’t complain about any absences I would have liked to see on there but it’s a big selection, quite varied and presents some areas for me to explore, which is always exciting.

I have to admit, as a pedant who obsesses over lists I do have some issues with the list. Some of them are true pedantry as some entries are in different formats than others. One puzzling entry is Louis Couperin’s Pieces de Clavecine…. The subeditor in me (that’s my paying job) reviles the fourth dot in the ellipsis, the rest of me just wonders what the ellipsis means. A quick look on Wikipedia tells me his works weren’t published in his lifetime but he wrote a lot of music for the harpsichord. It appears that perhaps the ellipsis means the entry is for the sum total of his keyboard compositions, which seems somewhat strange.

In a roundabout way that brings me to my main issue with the list, some entries are for huge swathes of composition while others are for succinct pieces. If for example we can vote for Louis Couperin’s entire solo harpsichord output as one thing, why must we vote for specific Keyboard Sonatas by Scarlatti, none of which is longer than three minutes? Of course, there is no grouping of Scarlatti’s sonatas like Francois Couperin’s ‘Books’, but there isn’t for Louis’ either beyond collecting them all under one title.

Perhaps the most obvious example for me is that the Brandenburg Concertos are all listed separately yet everywhere else such groups are listed as one piece. Handel’s Concerto Grossi Op 6 No 1-12 for instance and his three Water Music Suites which are simply listed as Water Music (that’s the pedant in me I know). Even worse would be Rameau’s Pieces de clavecin en concert, which are unrelated works written over a number of years that just happen to be, essentially, harpsichord concertos. Why would such distinct works be listed as one when the Brandenburgs are six?

On another point of pure pedantry, the Pieces de clavecin en concert are listed as ‘Solo instrument’ despite being concertos.

Pedantic asides aside, I do find some of those listings annoyingly inconsistent. It’s not going to hugely detract from the experience and I’m definitely enjoying exploring the music and pondering my voting options. And I look forward to the final countdown with proverbial bate all over my breath. But the consistency would be nice.

As to what I’ll be voting for, the shortlist is still forming but there are some early favourites. I’m somewhat torn when it comes to JS Bach; I want to spread the love among composers again and only vote for one piece each, but that leaves me with deciding between his Cello Suite No 1 and Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The latter has been with me since before I can remember, but the former is breathtakingly beautiful.

Handel is somewhat easier for me. There are parts of two of his oratorios I’d possibly vote for by themselves, but I don’t want to vote for the whole works so they’re out. Which leaves me with his Concerto Grossi Op 6 and Music for Royal Fireworks to decide between.

Vivaldi is another problem; I love The Four Seasons but they’re surely going to do fine as they are – although I predict his Gloria will be his top ranked piece. That leaves me with choosing one of his other pieces, almost certainly a concerto but which one?

Other frontrunners are Corelli’s Concerto Grossi, although I’ve recently discovered his Violin Sonatas and they’re wonderful so there’s another choice. Tartini’s Violin Concerto in G is another recent discovery I’m enjoying immensely.

Hmm. There’s a lot more to be considered. I’ll keep you informed.

Keep exploring!

Miriam Hyde's Centenary

Today as I listened to Classic Breakfast with Emma Ayres I learnt that it's Miriam Hyde's centenary year. I also learnt there was an Australian composer called Miriam Hyde. Looks like maybe I should've known this already and I admit her face rings vague bells but really, how many Australian composers can you name? How many women composers? So how many Australian women ... anyway the point is I now know about her and would like to hear more of her music.

There's a good biography of her at the Australia Music Centre's website (click here for that). Turns out she was a successful composer, pianist, poet and musical educator with an OBE and AO and the International Woman of the Year (1991-2). Her piano concerti were performed by major English orchestras in the 1920s too, with her as the soloist.

Most of her music appears to have been written for piano, including learning pieces of various levels, some set to her poems. I found this performance of one on YouTube entitled Forest Stream and it does seem to flow and bubble as a stream winding through a forest and over rocks might do.

From that page I found a link to a recording - possibly of the WASO in 1965 with her as soloist but I can't swear to that - of her second Piano Concerto. It also has some text from a Keys to Music program Graham Abbott must have run last year about Miriam Hyde the composer. And I'm glad the link was there. It's a very good concerto, full of drama and virtuosity without being a show-off piece, and quite Romantic in feel, at least to my ear.

There was also this short Reverie, which may be one of her 'exam' pieces but has a lovely dream like quality to it; and this in turn led me to a piece called Spring. This performance is for an exam but still the piece is a wonderful evocation of that season so beloved of artists.

Which in a strange way leads me to what I will finish with, a quote from Miriam Hyde on music and her compositions - I feel my music can be a refuge for what beauty and peace can still be omnipresent...the triumph of good over evil. I make no apologies for writing from the heart.

I think we can all be thankful she did.

PS Closing tabs I discovered this performance of her Fantasy Trio by Trio Fidelis, and it's a good closer. There's more out there - get listening!

Under-rated Epic Composer, Basil Poledouris

With voting now open for the Music in the Movies countdown I figure it’s time to look at some composers. I won’t worry about John Williams, his genius is well known and widely discussed.

Who I will worry about and start with is Basil Poledouris. He was conspicuously absent from the initial list but I was happy to see he’d been added before I made my additions. Poledouris was a Greek-American composer highly regarded for his epic scores and intimate themes.

My first two samples for you should show that, the opening of Conan the Barbarian and the closest thing Conan gets to a love theme, known on the soundtrack as Wifeing. I will point out the love theme is very gentle and a sweeping romantic variation on a theme, with gorgeous instrumentation. If you're thinking 'it's for a mindless action film it can't be any good' listen to this and you'll soon change your tune, but not this one.

Conan the Barbarian is probably his best known work and it will be getting one of my votes for sure. But he did more than that of course. His other major works were The Hunt for Red October, which has some awesomely moody Russian-style music (like this) and Robocop, which sees the epic grandeur of Conan given a modern kick. Here's the main theme.

In the interest of discovering new music I’ve looked into some of his other soundtracks care of YouTube. I hadn't realised he did the score to Starship Troopers, giving it more drama than it probably deserved but living up to his name. This piece is called Klendathu Drop and it has the militaristic themes matched with heroism and a tinge of humanity and sadness - not an easy mix.

In a completely different mood, here's a suite from his score for The Blue Lagoon. It has what I'm starting to see as characteristic strings and brass, but here they are soft and welcoming, although it shifts easily into threatening mode for the dangerous parts. I've not seen the movie so I don't know what. There's also a charming piano piece partway through.

I think there's much more great music to find by Poledouris, including from many films that probably aren't worth worrying about so it's a bit more of an effort but well worth it.

First Thoughts on Classic 100: Music from the Movies

I just want to record some of my initial thoughts about the next Classic 100 on ABC Classic FM which is Music from the Movies. There was a sense of inevitability about the announcement to be honest, ever since the debate which raged over Howard Shores’ score for The Lord of the Rings making it into the Classic 100 20th century two years back it seemed film music was going to get its own countdown.

Of course, it’s also an exciting theme with lots of wonderful options. I do however have some concerns about it. The first is the inclusion of music not written for but used in films. So O Fortuna, Ride of the Valkyries and heaps of other pieces are open for consideration. Which is okay but the other choice is the score itself, so we can vote for Thus Spake Zarathustra for 2001: A Space Odyssey or the score to Ben Hur – but not the opening credits for Ben Hur. To me there’s a conflict here and the two should probably be treated as separate countdowns – classical music used in films and film scores.

My other issue is in many ways the same problem that arises in any of these countdowns but is accentuated by the nature of the theme. People will vote primarily for what they know and a lot of very good music misses out from not being aired often enough or simply well-known enough. That happens; it’s the nature of countdowns. But in this instance there’s more than just music preferences in play, there are film preferences and some of these will certainly affect the way people vote.

There is in some circles a view that blockbusters for instance have no real artistic merit, which is untrue but will deter people from voting for a lot of them. The one I feel most unfairly suffers here is actually Twilight. Outside the fans of the franchise there is a strong dismissal of anything associated with it, but if Classic FM listeners heard any of Burwell's score for the movies without knowing where it came from there is no doubt in my mind they would love it. Say what you will about the movies and books, the score behind the movie is sublime.

I also fear Basil Poledouris is going to be sadly overlooked. His score to Conan the Barbarian is fantastic, but it’s for Conan the Barbarian … which I love but I’m that kind of a guy, I don’t think many voters in the countdown will even pause to wonder if the music for it is any good at all. I could be horribly wrong and being a snob against myself, I hope so as it is definitely worthy of being included.

To be honest as I think about it, there are so many movies out there and so much good music is written for them. Maybe the blockbusters will win out for sheer shared knowledge. I guess we'll find out and I hope the journey is as fun as last year. Expect a series on composers soon.

More Recordings Please - Peggy Glanville-Hicks

One of the first composers I learnt was Australian was Glanville-Hicks, a name I knew because one of her pieces was on the first of the Swoon CDs the ABC put out in the 90s and I played a lot. But it was only really this year that I found out anything about her, even the fact that her first name was Peggy. The fact that this is her centenary year is a nice bit of serendipity I guess.

For an Australian composer however, Peggy only just counts. She was born here and she died here, and she left a wonderful legacy for Australian composition with a Trust, but most of her training and career took place overseas. Sadly that's probably to be expected for the time.

Unfortunately too, it's not that easy to lay your hands on her music. Bits an pieces yes but compared to even some of the more obscure French composers I looked at earlier she is a veritable needle in a haystack. For instance, one of her most famous works - and the one represented on Swoon - is the Sinfonia da Pacifica, and it is on YouTube but only performed by the Community Women's Orchestra performing in a church hall in Oakland California. They do a good job but there's no mistaking they are a community orchestra. Where are the bigger recordings? The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra has made some but a quick search on the ABC Shop online shows they're not readily available - in that they don't even come up under a search.

Christopher Lawrence had Glanville-Hicks as his composer on the pedestal for the last week of Australian Music month. Several of the recordings were private. One of them was the celebrated inaugural recording of her opera Sappho which only happened this year and another was of another opera The Transposed Heads.

Classics Online has a few recordings of her in the NAXOS Archives section, one of which is unavailable in Australia, one is The Transposed Heads and the other has her Three Gymnopedies between two other works by composers I don't know at all. From the samples these are beautiful orchestral snippets. I think the TSO has done them too and I would love to find a copy.

Interestingly, the other YouTube video I have for her is of a Sonatina for Recorder - a delightful exploration of the instrument - performed by a German. This is interesting because the only other album I've found so far with a piece of her music on it is on a German label. So aside from what the TSO has done, it seems she has more of a name in Germany and the States than in her own country. This despite her generous legacy which supports middle career composers. Come on people.