Happy 4th of July! A New Comp: MA-90 - USA

Here's another music compilation of songs that show various aspects of this aspiring-for-greatness country.  By that I mean, there's always been much to celebrate about American ideals, but being flawed humans we continually strive to betterness (is that a word?) -- to encourage and respect our better ideals of equality, decency, opportunity and all those higher behaviors.

The songs are:

01 - The Star-Spangled Banner - Classical Brass   1990  (1:05)

02 - Living in America - James Brown   1985  (4:43)

03 - Cruel War - Peter, Paul and Mary   1962  (3:28)

04 - The March from “1941” - John Williams   1979  (4:05)

05 - Country Band March - The President's Own United States Marine Band   1998  (4:04)

06 - United We Stand - The Brotherhood of Man   1970  (2:53)

07 - Ramblin' Man - Hank Williams   1953  (3:01)

08 - I'm for Love - Hank Williams Jr   1985  (2:55)

09 - Swanee (piano roll) - George Gershwin    1920  (2:16)

10 - American Tune - Paul Simon   1973  (3:45)

11 - Home! Sweet Home - The  Yankee  Doodle  Society   1982  (2:50)

12 - (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 - Nat King Cole   1944  (2:59)

13 - I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier - Marilyn Horne   1986  (2:18)

14 - Hoedown - Emerson, Lake & Palmer   1972  (3:44)

15 - America the Beautiful - Coca-Cola TV ad   2014  (1:01)

16 - The Star-Spangled Banner - The Heritage Choir & Orchestra   1998  (1:57)

17 - The Stars and Stripes Forever - The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus   2012  (3:25)

18 - God Bless America - LeAnn Rimes   1997  (3:04)

19 - America (from “West Side Story”) - Bill Charlap Trio   2004  (3:50)

20 - “The Comancheros” Main Title - Elmer Bernstein   1961  (1:38)

21 - Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor - Allyn McLerie, Miss Liberty Ensemble   1949  (2:58)

22 - If I Can Dream - Elvis Presley (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)   2015  (3:10)

23 - Faded Love - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys   1950  (2:51)

24 - The Star Spangled Banner with Brilliant Variations - Augustus Cull   2014  (4:54)

25 - Seventy-Six Trombones (from “The Music Man” - edit) - Meredith Willson   1962  (4:07)

Track One is an interesting arrangment of our national anthem as a semi-refined waltz.
     Track Four is a wonderfully bombastic march from John Williams.  However, because it's from 1941, its arrogance and pride come off as hubristic.  But musically, I love its swagger.
     Track Five, Charles Ives's "Country Band March," is an example of a type of music that I love, mashing bits and motives together to form a new whole -- a serious-music version of the lampooning of  Peter Schickele's "Quodlibet."
     Have you seen the TV commercial from which Track 15 was taken?  Being a generous, everybody-into-the-pool American, I think the idea is wonderful -- a perfect visual illustration of one of our national phrases, "E pluribus unum."  Y'know, that whole "one formed from many" bit.  It saddens me that some self-righteous types seem to hate American inclusivity (there were some very nasty responses to the ad, by the mentally unwashed).
     Track 22 is from a new arrangement of Elvis's vocals, with new accompaniment.
     Track 23 -- it's a classic song of heartbreak, unashamed in its sentimentality.  As a native Oklahoman, I think it's kinda neat that this song is "the official country-and-western song of Oklahoma."  This designation occurred in 1988.  If you're anything like me, your next thought is, "Wasn't some more important state business to perform that day?"
     Track 25 is an edit of several places in the wonderful 1962 film The Music Man.

https://www.filefactory.com/file/29xm347s7mv4/MA-90.rar

Happy Independence Day!

See you Thursday with another new music compilation, reflecting a significant part of musical memories.
 

Something New from Something Old - MA-100 – Beowulf

This is a first for me, my friends.  This release contains my own compositions.

             I was a painfully lonely youth when I went off to college in Fall, 1974.  I had taught myself to play piano, note by note, from paltry, heartfelt guitar knowledge.  I ached to communicate something meaningful to somebody else.  A friend from the high-school yearbook took this photo of me “pouring out my simple soul,” as Joni Mitchell put it.

  

 

 

            Although some of my acquaintances were at the same college, they were popular with others; I was not.  My rapidfire sarcasm ensured folks wouldn’t come too close.

            Filled with loneliness though unable to behave like a friend, I took solace in the open rehearsal rooms in the music building.  There must have been twenty or more rooms, about ten by ten feet, each with an upright piano.  Best of all, in those pre-computer-ID days, the rooms were open nearly twenty-four hours.

            I wrote several dozen songs (many more not worth remembering) in those rooms.  Besides words-and-music, I had solely instrumental thoughts.  Rick Wakeman’s album The Six Wives of Henry VIII prompted me to tailor these ideas around specific characters from Beowulf, the epic whose grim Nordic vistas of blood, battle, and desolation had touched my lonely heart.  Thank you, Della Craighead, for introducing me to the struggles and glories of the Geats!  Here’s the version we read in English Lit at Sooner High School:

             In my hours of solitude, the characters of Beowulf came to life for me.  I conjured, composed, memorized, and played music to embody them.  On a night in November, 1975, in my second year at school, I took my cassette deck into the college chapel’s choir room and plugged in a mic.  I recorded these pieces in single takes.  (Track 6, performed on guitar, was recorded separately.)  It was all from memory, of course, because I can’t read music.

            Last week I dubbed the cassette, tried to remove hum or hiss,  and regularized the volume.

The pieces are:

01. Wealhtheow (5:18)

02. Hrothgar (6:33)

03. Grendel (3:06)

04. Beowulf (8:36)

05. Beowulf's Pyre (6:33)

06. Heorot (3:50)

Wealhtheow   Track 1, “Wealhtheow,” is named for King Hrothgar’s wife, whom I imagined as a regal presence like Olivia de Havilland in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood.  Wealhtheow’s public persona was was submissive and sedate, but I pictured her as full of tumult and worry within, as her realm was being ruined by Grendel’s rampage.

Hrothgar   Track 2 is a sketch of the king Beowulf came to aid.  Like all of these pieces, its motives travel inward and then reverse course.  I think of Hrothgar as being serious and stately, but then his mind is filled with despair and sorrow because of his age and Grendel’s attacks.  Then comes the section I originally called “Jerusalem Rag,” which symbolizes Hrothgar’s lost, carefree youth.  Then sorrow returns with an acknowledgement that such frolics are in the past.  The regal, jaunting theme returns, capped by a campy laugh at the absurdity of all life.

 

Grendel   Track 3:  I was pretty happy when I arrived at the opening “creeper” theme for the villainous beast Grendel.  The middle section, which putt-putts along like musical clockwork, exemplifies that however horrific its results, evil is in itself hollow and unable to conceive anything truly creative.

Beowulf   Track 4, named for our hero, is in two main sections.  The first five-minute stretch conveys Beowulf’s heroism and conflict against both men (the swimming contest) and monsters like Grendel and its mother.  His struggles completed, the final section of the piece conveys Beowulf’s peaceful reign in old age, after he returns home to Geatland, in southern Sweden.

 

Beowulf’s Pyre   Track 5:  After a long, successful reign, Beowulf’s kingdom is troubled by a terrible dragon.  Many warriors have tried and failed to drive the beast away, so Beowulf arrays himself once more in his battle gear.  After an extended fight he kills the drake, suffering mortal wounds himself.  The Beowulf poem concludes at Beowulf’s pyre, as his kingdom celebrates his memory.

            Performance-wise, the reason for the plethora of fumbles in this piece is simple.  This was the most recently composed, and it was too fresh for “performance memory” to have set in.  However, I think the heroic processional theme which FINALLY emerges from the clouds at 3:41 is something solid.

Heorot   Track 6, named after the mead hall of King Hrothgar, evinces a time before the evil monster Grendel arrived from the night to kill and terrorise the Danes.  It’s deliberately uncomplicated, like the revels it depicts.  By the way, archaeologists may have found Heorot.

            So, my friends, I’m sharing this “suite of character sketches” with you.  If you like any of it, leave a comment.  Thanks for your goodwill in listening.

MA-100 – Beowulf

PS:  See you on Monday, July 3.  We’re taking the rest of this month off in prep for SoonerCon 26.  See you then!