Briefly noted
April 27th, 2005 | Tags: music, osv., sports | 5 Comments
Kenny G vs. Machaut
Because I usually find the opinions about early music expressed by “Pliable” at On An Overgrown Path to be fairly agreeable, I was shocked to see what appeared to be an endorsement of the Hilliard Ensemble’s work with saxophonist Jan Garbarek. The Hilliard Ensemble is one of the finest early music vocal ensembles in the world; their work with Garbarek, however, is worthy of anathema. (The Hilliard/Garbarek CD Officium has the overall affect of Kenny G getting in a fight with Guillaume de Machaut.)
I was so curious by what seemed to me to be an inexplicable lapse in taste that I read Pliable’s review of Officium, which clarifies the issue somewhat by presenting the Garbarek disc as a means to an end:
Although it is sacrilege to say it 75 minutes of continuous medieval polyphony can be too bland a dish for some tastes. Garbareck’s saxophone adds the spice to the Hilliard’s main course. And yes, I would say I sometimes wish the sax took more of a back seat, but that only sharpened my appetite for polyphony without the spice, and there is a lot of that on my shelves.
Listening to “lite hits” radio while getting a haircut sharpens my appetite for nearly anything else (up to and including Gaussian noise), but I’m not going out and buying Celine Dion CDs just so that I can more fully appreciate the rest of my collection. Indeed, Pliable’s Officium verdict seems to be akin to “Cancer is great, because now we have all of these really smart oncologists.”
(In any case, the Norwich and Norfolk festivals, which Pliable describes in the first linked article, sound great. I wish I could attend!)
On Wisconsin!
An Appleton, WI woman was convicted of embezzling $3000 from her labor union. She requested leniency, citing financial hardship, so the judge presented her with an option of Solomonic proportions: either serve 90 days in jail or donate her Green Bay Packers tickets to charity. If I were her, I’d take the jail time — she might be able to get autographs from Packers players Ahman Green and Al Harris. Green was arrested last night on his fourth domestic violence charge since 1999, and Harris has been accused of assaulting a stripper.
Productivity notes
Merlin Mann points to a thoughtful 43Folders mailing list post, which advises to “park on a downhill slope”:
Each day, when I wrap up whatever I’m doing, I jot down (on paper when I remember, otherwise I do it mentally with lesser effect) exactly where I need to start. And that is usually a question I’m still pondering/researching…
As long as I’m mentioning 43Folders, I should note that Joe Carter has adopted the Hipster PDA, Mann’s lo-fi index-card-based organizer for the cool kids. If you have a near-prurient interest in personal productivity aids, you should check out the set of HPDA-related photos on Flickr.com. Some are quite clever.
I’m currently listening to Suite No. 1 in G Major – Menuets I & II from the album “Cello Suites BWV 1007-1012” by Lynn Harrell
April 28th, 2005 at 07:10:18 AM (#)
Hi Will, thoughtful post from you about the Hilliard Officium conundrum. I appreciate your point of view. I try to use On An Overgrown Path as a vehicle for exploration, and Officium is a point visited on that path. Interestingly Jacques Loussier was another point visited quite a few years ago -and he is in Norwich at our Festival with the Hilliard and Garbarek next week. I’ve been pondering on a post abou the Jaques Loussier conundrum for some time, and would welcome your view on whether his presentation of Bach (and now Scarlatti) is a help or a hindrance.
My main fascination with Officium is the use of improvisation. Tucked away in the blog archives are a couple of posts about this which may be of interest, see http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2004/11/improvisation.html and http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2005/02/improvisation-2.html
I found Garbarek’s sax a bit easier to accept after the Serpent in Une Messe pour La Saint Michel! see http://theovergrownpath.blogspot.com/2005/04/size-does-matter.html
Really good to see blog genrating this kind of exchange,
Regards from the UK Pliable
April 28th, 2005 at 10:00:08 AM (#)
P.S. I don’t think our blogs are linked. I’ve just rectified that from my end!
Regards,
Pliable
April 28th, 2005 at 02:02:34 PM (#)
Hi Pliable, and thanks for the comments, as well as the reminder that I’d not yet linked to your site. (I have done so now.)
I shall probably re-examine the Officium disc when I have a chance, in order to approach it as an improvisation, or at least as a spontaneous act. I still find the idea of “adding” to such great music in such a way distasteful, but — as you hint elsewhere — if it increases the audience for early music, it can’t be all bad.
Your comparisons between Garbarek and Loussier are interesting, and I don’t know if I totally agree with them. Whereas Garbarek responds to the medieval choral music in his own idiom, creating a sort of aesthetic collage, Loussier reconstructs the barest materials of, e.g. Bach, into jazz. (I have not heard his Scarlatti work.) It seems to me that Loussier is reinterpreting and conversing with Bach (in a way that, for example, Rochberg did with the Baroque keyboard idiom in general), but that Garbarek is talking at (or over) the medieval works.
I think Loussier’s work is closer in aesthetic to Uri Caine’s (often silly) Primal Light CD, which presents some Mahler-derived (-inspired?) jazz. Caine brings out some interesting points of Mahler, but beats some dead horses (e.g. by emphasizing the klezmer aspects of the funeral-march section of Symphony 1), and engages in some more serious digressions, for example from “Ging heut Morgens übers Feld” into “free jazz.” (As an aside, Caine’s Wagner e Venezia disc, which simply presents fairly straight-ahead Wagner arrangements in a thinner texture, is excellent.)
I’ve only given my copy of Jacques Loussier Plays Bach a few cursory listens, so I can’t say for sure how I feel about what it does for Bach. I will say this: there is nothing a priori wrong with reworking pieces in a new idiom. (Certainly, there are abundant examples of this in art music: consider at least the Renaissance parody mass and the amazing mileage that Lutheran composers have gotten out of chorales.) There are good examples and bad ones; it seems to me that the difference between the two subsists in the creativity and artistry with which the materials of the original are transformed, re-worked, and retained in the derivative work.
The derivative works that improve our understanding or appreciation of the original, I believe, are those that expose its essence more clearly, or draw our attention to previously-obscured salient features. I’ll have to wait to make an argument one way or another about Loussier!
April 29th, 2005 at 08:20:19 AM (#)
Will, fascinating discussion. We are really in agreement over Uri Caine, I found the Wagner disc valid, the rest seem to be a mish-mash of a small amount of real inspiration and a lot of fairly meaningless self-indulgence. I think his Goldberg Variations are the best (worst?) example of this lack of consistent inspiration.
Do you know the jazz pianist Hugh Warren (of the Perfect House Plants) solo disc of improvisations on Dowland? Sorry, I am in the office and don’t have the disc in fromt of me, (seems to be deleted and not on Amazon). Very well worth listening to, but I fear it may no longer be available.
I listened to Officium again last night. The sleeve notes (as always with ECM when there are any) are useful, and they explain that a degree of improvisation was probably present in music of that period. I think though it is valid as a ‘stopping off point’ on a path of exploration. When I thought about last night I realised that Officium took me to Morales, the Officium Defunctorum, and beyond that. (Have you heard C de Morales: Morales in Toledo – New Polyphony from Toledo’s Codex 25 (1545-1547) – Ensemble Plus Ultra; Michael Noone, director on Glossa?) For starting me on that journey Officium has value, authentic or inauthentic.
I tried (and failed I think) to explain what On An Overgrown Path was trying to do (and in the same way Officium) in a very early post which is at Serendipity and collabarative filtering I think it is worth reading, even if it portentous and flawed.(Hope your comments take HTML, if not I am sure you can tease the URL out).
Thanks for the link. It is the Monteverdi Vespers in St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge (England!) tomorrow evening; it is one of our holiday weekends.
On An Overgrown Path seems to have become a bit political in the last few postings, but I am trying to avoid the ‘music blog’ label. As I don’t answer to shareholders I write what I want! But tomorrow there is a post about Walton’s Facade, and then the Monteverdi I hope.
Regards Pliable
May 1st, 2005 at 10:45:50 AM (#)
I didn’t know of the Hugh Warren work; thanks for the reference. (As an aside, I’ve always thought that a lot of Renaissance chansons would make great bases for jazz improvisations.) Likewise, my exposure to Morales is limited. I’ll be sure to find that recording when I get a chance
I enjoy your writing a great deal; to me, at least, your site presents an edifying journey. As far as I can tell, you’re meeting the goals you’ve outlined for yourself.