Classical Music, Poetry and stuff

[Prospero]

Rogers yes and Bernstein yes and hermann.... so ho about Benny Goodman and stephen foster

[Prospero]

Stevie Wonder and Brian Wilson

[robertlouis]

Rogers yes and Bernstein yes and hermann.... so ho about Benny Goodman and stephen foster

I'd agree with those as well, although Foster died during the Civil War.

At least we're relatively safe on this thread from being deluged by claims on behalf of death-metal writers!

[Stavros]

Apparently Churchill was once introduced to the Philosopher Isaiah Berlin and spent a good deal of time talking to him about his great skills as songwriting. true

Irving Berlin was in London with his musical This is the Army in 1943 -when Isaiah Berlin was in the Washington Embassy. Irving had contributed to one of Clementine's charities which is why she said WSC should thank him if he met Irving at the Churchill Club in the New Year around February -WSC insisted Berlin be invited to lunch and kept asking him questions about Roosevelt and the War. Berlin was puzzled but flattered that the Prime Minister would ask him political questions, WSC confused by Berlin's American accent (I was given Isaiah Berlin's Letters 1928-1946 last Christmas, its on p478-479 and some other accounts).

Apart from some Jazz classics most American music leaves me cold, except for Aaron Copland whose music makes me feel physically sick -Rodeo came on Radio 3 a week or so ago and I nearly broke a leg in the mad dash across the room to turn the radio off. There are two composers whose work I find so horrible I would sent it to Room 101 -Copland, and William Walton.

I have an album of Barber and Korngold's violin concertos and the Korngold violin suite for Much Ado About Nothing (Gil Shaham and Andre Previn) -two of my favourite violin concertos (I suppose Korngold is classified as an American); and some of Scott Joplin's piano music bears repeated listening. My brother-in-law thinks his opera Treemonisha is worth listening to even if it isnt in the first rank of operas.

[robertlouis]

Can't agree on Copland - Appalachian Spring remains one of the most evocative pieces and is a perfect fit with the ballet it was written for.

But Scott Joplin - yes, absolutely. The stately pace of his earlier pieces belie the frantic nature of far too much of the ragtime music that followed in his wake.

Now, would it be a stretch to far to suggest Robert Johnson for inclusion in the pantheon?

[Stavros]

Now, would it be a stretch to far to suggest Robert Johnson for inclusion in the pantheon?

Not at all. I guess its toss up which of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson came to establish 'folk blues' as a crucial element in modern popular music -Johnson has the added dimension of a strange, tragic life generating myths and legends, I never saw the film in the link below. If anything the reverence for Johnson, which did not exist when I bought King of the Delta Blues Singers in the mid-60s has mushroomed into a small industry -see the link attached. I would rather just have the recordings, and speculate on my own. For the record, the crossroads is everywhere...
http://www.robertjohnsonfilm.com/rob...m/Welcome.html

[robertlouis]

Now, would it be a stretch to far to suggest Robert Johnson for inclusion in the pantheon?

Not at all. I guess its toss up which of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson came to establish 'folk blues' as a crucial element in modern popular music -Johnson has the added dimension of a strange, tragic life generating myths and legends, I never saw the film in the link below. If anything the reverence for Johnson, which did not exist when I bought King of the Delta Blues Singers in the mid-60s has mushroomed into a small industry -see the link attached. I would rather just have the recordings, and speculate on my own. For the record, the crossroads is everywhere...
http://www.robertjohnsonfilm.com/rob...m/Welcome.html

I wrote a song, which is on my last album, which only as I finished it did it become clear to me that it was about Johnson. Make of that what you will.

As for the legend about selling his soul to the devil at the midnight crossroads so that he could become the best blues guitarist of them all, my personal theory is that he disappeared for a while and practised a lot!

[runningdownthatdream]

Now, would it be a stretch to far to suggest Robert Johnson for inclusion in the pantheon?

Not at all. I guess its toss up which of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly and Robert Johnson came to establish 'folk blues' as a crucial element in modern popular music -Johnson has the added dimension of a strange, tragic life generating myths and legends, I never saw the film in the link below. If anything the reverence for Johnson, which did not exist when I bought King of the Delta Blues Singers in the mid-60s has mushroomed into a small industry -see the link attached. I would rather just have the recordings, and speculate on my own. For the record, the crossroads is everywhere...
http://www.robertjohnsonfilm.com/rob...m/Welcome.html

First, those names you mention were just contributors. Many many others whose names we'll never know influenced the style before and after. Second, it isn't possible to critique blues and folk prior to the recording boom of the 40s because the music wasn't done for mass audiences. It came from people and for people that music critics in today's world much less the European world can scarcely comprehend. Something else of interest, if you are resourceful enough you will find that 'white' and 'black' music in rural America at the turn of the century have many similarities. Try listening to Mississippi John Hurt and Mother Maybelle Carter......one black and one white. A man and a woman. Their guitar work is very similar although they are from different places at a time when it would have been difficult for each to have heard the music of the other - how to explain the similarities?

The famous blues musicians got famous because of white hippies from the UK who proclaimed this musician or that musician to be a musical god. Prior to that these were just people who sang about their lives so I think it is important to separate out the Robert Crays from the guys like:
or



Another thing: don't look for technical know-how on the guitar or the harp....it's all about the emotion!

[Prospero]

[QUOTE=Stavros;965354]Apparently Churchill was once introduced to the Philosopher Isaiah Berlin and spent a good deal of time talking to him about his great skills as songwriting. true

Irving Berlin was in London with his musical This is the Army in 1943 -when Isaiah Berlin was in the Washington Embassy. Irving had contributed to one of Clementine's charities which is why she said WSC should thank him if he met Irving at the Churchill Club in the New Year around February -WSC insisted Berlin be invited to lunch and kept asking him questions about Roosevelt and the War. Berlin was puzzled but flattered that the Prime Minister would ask him political questions, WSC confused by Berlin's American accent (I was given Isaiah Berlin's Letters 1928-1946 last Christmas, its on p478-479 and some other accounts).
Whoops - I stand well corrected. interesting how i "misremembered' that story.

[Prospero]

This is my favourite Copland. Have you head this Stavros. I rally don't see HOW this could make anyone sick (It is short so stay with it)