Tchaikovski's Baby Swans

One of my all time favorite musical / ballet pieces is a dance from Swan Lake: The Dance of the Cygnets:

Cygnets 

One comment: when I first heard this piece, as a little kid of 9 or 10, the piece ended softly; just two staccato chords, pop, pop!  That's my preference even today, not two thundering chords, which sound really stupid. 

Tchaikovsky was really a genius.  I occasionally try to imagine composing this piece—thinking of it as just a piece of music—and I think what an amazing piece of music it is!  Deep and learned, a well a cute and cheeky, at the same time. 

And then the orchestration, starting of with nothing but double reeds (at least, that what it sounds like to me; there could be other hidden instruments.  And later, there are flutes joining in)!

It is so magical to see it ḍanced; these days just a small group of four dance it, with linked hands, I think following the choreography of Petipa, or someone like that.  And I have seen not one but two comedy versions of the same dance, with one baby swan totally confused, and confusing the other three a well!  I declare there's nothing funnier than the comedy version of that dance!  If only Tchaikovsky were alive to see it!

Pure genius. 

The Chord of the Ninth

The chord of the 9th—not at all a rare chord in 19th, 20th and 21st century music—is interesting.  I was just thinking of the song 'Close 2 You', made popular by The Carpenters, and I realized that I had not often talked about harmony from the viewpoint of amateur musicians, especially guitar players.  The very first chord of that song is a subdominant 9th.  To avoid horrible terms like 'subdominant,' we have to decide what key the song will be in; let's say F.  The most common chords of F major are

(1) F-A-C, the F chord;

(5) C-E-G, the C chord;

(4) B♭-D-F, the B-Flat chord.

But the first chord of this song is, stripped down, B♭-D-F-C.

Hey, you're probably thinking, what's that C doing there?

Well, before the chord sounds, there are two notes: D F, which correspond to the words 

"Why do ..."

The next word is "birds," and that word is sung to C, which is why the chord of the 9th makes sense here.

The song continues with "...suddenly appear, anytime you are near?"

There is an excellent reason why this chord works well there; it's because the notes to which the next few syllables are sung are B♭ C and D, so we would consider the C an (accented)  passing note, which are notes that are not harmonized; they're just sounded over the preceding harmony.  The rules of popular music have evolved to allow those passing notes to be incorporated right into the chord, and it's given a name: chord of the (added) ninth.  (On B♭, of course.)

Dowland: Suzanna

Years ago, I acquired a CD of Dowland music performed by The Extempore String Ensemble.

There were certain tunes on that CD that I got to like, and among them a few that were 'earworms'; that is, they stuck in my memory.  Their names did not stick; just the tunes themselves.

Today, I happened to be on YouTube, searching for Dowland music, when I stumbled on this piece that I really like, titled Suzanna.  I'm pretty sure that was not the title of the piece on the CD, but anyway, go look for Suzanna by Dowland, and put it on!

Favorite Piece?

Watching a clip about the piece that stops various classical music lovers in their tracks, on hearing it.  Each one had a different one, and I got to thinking: how would I answer that question?  I'm likely to change my mind, depending on what I had been doing ...

But here's one favorite: the last chorus of the St. Matthew Passion by Bach— Wir setzen uns, mit Tränen nieder ... I have to check that title; I've forgotten it.  The disciples, and the two choirs (that work requires two choirs, and two orchestras and two organs), are seated symbolically at Jesus's grave, and are weeping. 

There is a powerful tune that keeps returning (these sorts of tunes are called a ritornello.)  It's in two parts.  One part starts in the major key, and ends in the minor.  The other one is almost a twin of the first, except that it starts in the minor, and finishes in the major. 

It's sad, but I love it!  I ought to give you a link to a recording, and maybe I will, later. 

Archie 

Kerry Dancing

My favorite English choir had an album in which there was this song: The Days of the Kerry Dancing, which not being something I was familiar with, I was not at all impressed with.  I heard it again here and there; on the radio, in the houses of other people, and I continued to be underwhelmed. 

Then, during band practice, (I play in this brass band for seniors) our leader handed out parts for a medley of British folksongs.  I recognized the tune at once, but now the circumstances were different!  The part I was playing would be classified as an inner part by band people, but choir people would hear it as a tenor line.  But all the three harmony lines ('voices', to be technical) were beautifully chromatic.

It's a little tough to explain what that word means without examples, but this song is a perfect example of a piece with chromatic elements in it.

Most folksongs, if they're moved down to C major*, would be playable only on the notes of C major, that is only on the white keys.  Occasionally the tune may wander into other keys, usually what we call neighboring keys, because they have the same notes as C major, except for one extra note: 

• F has B Flat instead of B,
• G has F# instead of F,
• A minor has G# instead of G, and so on.

So if the tune gets to be flavored with a chord in one of these keys, there's going to be an extraneous note inserted.  That would be a harmony note.

But around the time of Mozart, people began to write melodies that had these extra black notes purely for melodic effect, with no implied harmony at all!  This is what we call chromatic music. 

Well!  That made all the difference!  Unfortunately the piece didn't sound like a typical folksong anymore, but boy, was it fun to play!

[To be continued.]

Bobby Darin, Simple Song

I knew Bobby Darin as s popular singer of the sixties, who sang with The Ventures.  The Ventures were a great guitar group, and the combination was really fabulous!

Later, I discovered that he sang the English version of La Mer, a well known French song, whose English title was 'Somewhere beyond the sea.'  He also made the Kurt Weil song "Mac the Knife' popular.  His first hit was Dream Lover, and already it was clear that he had a great pop, rock, jazz voice. 

He co - wrote songs with Connie Francis, and had a romantic relationship with her, but they were prevented from marrying by her father. 

Apparently he was a Democrat, and gravitated towards writing protest songs, one of which is 'A Simple Song of Freedom'.  You can hear him picking on the guitar; he was clearly a talented musician.  It's said that he could play guitar, drums, and piano, and other instruments too.  He was a good actor, and I'm not sure what prevented him from pursuing a career in movies.  He married Sandra Dee, but they divorced. 

I must find out more, but stories about celebrities are even harder to verify than stories of classical composers.  Bobby Darin died in the mid seventies. 

Archie

The End of the Beatles

Fans without much life experience like to look for reasons and agents for the breakup of the Beatles.  They feel that there has to be someone who caused the breakup. 

The easiest one to blame is Yoko Ono.  She was an uncompromising woman, and she decided to show John all the things that were really wrong with her world.  The biggest thing at that time was the Vietnam War.

Starting from there, she showed him numerous things that she felt were wrong, including men deciding all sorts of matters—which affected women—without consulting the women. 

She saw that Paul was taking leadership of the Beatles, without waiting for consensus. 

She let John decide these things for himself.  Sometimes it was hard going; John resented some of the conclusions he was forced to arrive at.   Not forced by Yoko, but by force of logic. 

George was becoming frustrated at not being given an equal chance to include his music in Beatles albums, and he saw Paul as the main obstacle to that happening. 

This was enough to make the whole thing fall apart. 

There were smaller factors that grew into major problems: needing a manager (Paul wanted Linda's dad; John wanted another guy, who was revealed as too money - motivated).

By that time, they were all either married, or going steady, so it wasn't just keeping four people together.  It just couldn't last. 

A lot of fans wanted them to stay together very, very much; in fact, to some fans, it seemed like the end of the world when they broke up.  These are the ones who, to this day, keep looking for scapegoats.  I take a no fault approach. 

Archie.