the meme of seven interests

[calimac]

sturgeonslawyer picked these, but I think he said he was going away for the weekend, so I wait till now to reply.

Classification: I'm a library cataloger, and classification of books - the job of finding a single path through the web of knowledge, and of finding a concise notation scheme to express it - is for me the most fascinating part. Both Dewey and LC have their deficiencies, especially rather skewed pathways through that web, and I classify my nonfiction at home by a much more logically progressive system, a slightly modified version of this.

David Lodge: One day in grad school I was walking through the modern English literature stacks when my eye was caught by a title: The British Museum Is Falling Down. Intrigued, I looked at the book and found a very funny novel about an, ahem, grad student - though he was in literature rather than librarianship, and had the problem of fitting in his rapidly growing family with the Catholic prohibition of birth control. Then I read Changing Places and Small World and established Lodge as my favorite comic academic writer.

High Fantasy: Even back before the Big Fantasy Pat Boom, I found it perplexing to figure out what I liked and didn't. Friends who knew my love for Tolkien pointed me to Dunsany, Peake, Le Guin, and they were also excellent; but they also pointed me towards adventure fantasy by Howard and Leiber, which did nothing for me. Eventually I figured out that terms like "heroic fantasy" and "sword and sorcery" were leading me in the wrong direction. Robert Boyer and Kenneth Zahorski popularized the term "high fantasy" which had a much closer correleation to what I liked.

Hovhaness: My quest for composers who wrote symphonies soon came across Alan Hovhaness, who'd written over 20. (By the time of his death it was over 60.) I listened to some, and was enchanged by this intense but often serene, powerfully spiritual music. Hovhaness held to Wilde's dictum that the artist is the maker of beautiful things, and this may be why his name was absent from the severe guides to modern music I was reading at the time. He was prominent in the record catalogs, though, and this is how I learned to trust the catalogs as the best guide to good modern composers.

Symphonies: My seminal music-listening experience was my first encounter with the opening movement of Beethoven's Fifth. The way he builds the entire movement out of that tiny motto theme just amazed me: up till then, I'd had no idea that music could do something like that. I was soon converted into a listener of the heavy classics, and quickly found that the composers I liked the best were often those who'd written the most symphonies, and those were liable to be my favorites of their works. So I made that a guidepost to my collecting. I now have recordings of 912 different symphonies, a number I can state with authority because I've cataloged them all.

U.S. History: History is my discipline; I think of things historically, and the history (particularly political and geographical) of my own country has always interested me. I majored in it in college, and among my odder talents is the ability to recite the names of the US Presidents, in order, in thirty seconds.

Vaughan Williams: Another composer of symphonies, less obscure than Hovhaness. Ralph Vaughan Williams was a Londoner by habitat, but much of his early music, with titles like The Lark Ascending or Norfolk Rhapsody, evokes the English countryside. (But he also wrote a beautifully evocative city portrait in A London Symphony.) Later his music grew tougher, and his central symphonic trilogy - the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth - are his masterwork; the Sixth, sometimes thought to depict an atomic war, has a quiet and eerie ending unlike anything else in music up to that time.

Comments

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

Ah, Alan Hovhaness. We like a number of his pieces, but our favorite, by far, is "And God Created Great Whales". I (Perri) have even heard it performed in concert (not particularly well--the musicians were fine, but the whales were out of voice that night...). We have a recording (unfortunately we're not sure which recording it is) that we were given by my parents, but we haven't been able to find it for some time. Hopefully it will show up eventually. Other recordings that we've heard of that work are not anywheres as good as the one my parents gave us.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

See my replies to fringefaan's comments.

[divertimento.livejournal.com]

I'll trust you to pick seven from my list of interests.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

alton brown, conducting, kandinsky, koechlin, penguins, schwitters, ucsc

That includes the two I actually can't identify offhand (no, it's not "penguins"), as well as Koechlin. I never got into him: tell me why he's one of your top classical composers.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

So what do you particularly recommend by Hovhaness? I continue to enjoy everything you recommended in the Sibelius thread.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The problem with Hovhaness is that, being loved only on the fringes, performances are often not very good. There is one truly outstanding recording, though: an album titled Celestial Gate, Rudolf Werthen conducting I Fiamminghi (on Telarc). Just gorgeous.

For other music that hits me in similar places, I'd point forward to Górecki and Arvo Pärt*, and backwards to Bruckner.

*late 1970s-80s work in both cases; both had to work their way into their mature styles from rather alarming beginnings

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I have a disk of Arvo Pärt that I picked up after seeing a live performance of one of the pieces. Can't remember what's on the disk, but the piece I saw live involved prepared piano, as I recall. It was quite beautiful, and I like the other piece on the CD too. So that's a useful comparison for me. (Ah, googling leads me to believe the piece I saw live was Tabula Rasa. The other piece on the CD might be the Te Deum.)

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Hey, I saw that with you! I liked that piece too -- we were way up in the rafters at the back of the whachamacallit theater at UW.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

It's true. We sat next to some yahoos who mocked the Part. There was something else more mainstream also played that night. Maybe a symphony by Mozart.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

While I'm not particularly fond of Hovhaness, I have been greatly impressed by the Fritz Reiner/Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording of the Symphony #2, "Mysterious Mountain."

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation of Celestial Gate...we've taken your advice and bought it.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Me too.

more Hovhaness

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

You might also like the Mount St. Helens Symphony (no. 50), composed in 1983 and yep, it does. Recorded by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony for Delos, and I think it's been re-released on Naxos. This time it's the work rather than the performance that's less than top-drawer, but hey, you get to hear a musical depiction of a volanco blowing up! How cool is that?

Also on the original disc, at least, is the City of Light Symphony (no. 22), which contains, so far as I know, Hovhaness's only scherzo.

Re: more Hovhaness

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I thought I remembered that Gerard Schwarz recorded some Hovhaness back in his heyday.

Re: more Hovhaness

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

He did in fact record Mysterious Mountain plus And God Created Great Whales with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra on Delos, for one. And then there is another CD entitled Hovhaness Collection, Vol. 2 also on Delos, with those same two pieces, plus a number of others.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

So how does it work, the memester sends you seven interests, or you, meme-o-rama-like, go eeny memememe miney mo, or do you delve for the most ineluctable seven you can find?

I use to be able to rattle off all the presidents in order, but then I let too many years go by without practicing, so that more recently, the once every few years it comes up, it's taken me several minutes to get through the list, and I think the last time I failed -- I always have the hardest time getting from Tyler to Buchanan. But I just reviewed the list, and am confident I could get through that list in 60 seconds flat, if not 45. Of course, I like to intone the names a bit (why bother otherwise?) so we'll just pretend that's the reason why you'll always beat me in President-recitation contests. But do you name Cleveland twice? Or if only once, is it before or after Benjamin Harrison?

Of course, if we really wanted to be perverse (as if we need any help in that area), we'd memorize the list of Vice Presidents and rattle them off almost as fast. Amazing how many 19th century veeps keeled over during their terms. And the two who served under different presidents! Or (but then we get into secret history, ooops) the first gay vice president, who was both the lover of, and served under the predecessor of, the first gay president -- and who (no doubt unbenownst to them) lent their names to two adjoining counties in Washington State!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Somehow this got started, and I commented on sturgeonlawyer's post of this kind, and according to the rules of this meme, that gave him the right to pick from mine.

I find there's a definite rhythm to "Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan", so I have no trouble with those obscure guys. Intoned patterns like that explain my speed. Sure I can name the VPs also, but it takes longer because I have to process it as I go along.

My first published letter to the editor - I was maybe 12 - corrected a statement that McKinley had dumped Garret Hobart when he ran for re-election. Nope: Hobart was one of those VPs who'd keeled over.

No, that President-VP pair knew of their counties. They were named just after the election. (And Denali was named Mount McKinley just after his election.) Can you imagine such namings after sitting officials today? Mount Bush. Cheney County. Ugh!

I remain agnostic on the question of whether that pair of office-holders were actually a gay couple. Sure, it was rumored even at the time, but that doesn't prove anything. (False rumors about hidden sexual habits are as common as true ones.) Still, it's good to shock the staid by pointing out that it could well have been.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! The secret of your 30-second recitation is that you only say their surnames, whereas I recite their names entire, and no doubt would take, even under the best of circumstances, more than twice as long.

It turns out my antecedents were not properly lined up at the tail end of my sentence about our gay executives. President Franklin Pierce (to whom George W. is related) and Vice President William King indeed lent their names to Washington State counties, but there's never been any rumors about them being lovers -- Pierce was almost certainly straight. It was James Buchanan, Pierce's successor, who was almost certainly gay, and it appears very likely that Buchanan and King were long-time lovers, though that relationship had likely ended by the time Buchanan became president. A 20+ year correspondence survives between the two, upon which the supposition is largely based.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Yes, I knew who you were talking about, and I didn't find your antecedents mixed. It was clear you were talking about two different Presidents. The relationship, if any, better well have ended before Buchanan became President, unless Buchanan was a necrophiliac.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

. . . unless Buchanan was a necrophiliac.

Well, he does regularly appear near the bottom of rankings of presidential greatness, which is almost as bad.

You gave me a good laugh though -- forgot King's early death, but once reminded much of it came rushing back -- the act of Congress, the Cuban inaugural, the early death from (I think) t.b. Funny how the mind works.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Sure I only say the surnames if I'm doing the 30-second version. (And yes, Cleveland gets named twice.) I can also give, without reference, their full legal names, years of office, states of residence, principal election opponents, and in most cases life dates, as well, but not in 30 seconds.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Never could do those things, and never will. Some people.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was particularly curious about Hohvaness, whom you've mentioned many, many times but by whom I've heard very little...

[(Anonymous)]

Did you happen to be living in this area back when Hovhanness conducted the SJS? He, along with a bunch of other living composers, were here to celebrate the bicentennial. (We lost a lot of patrons after that year!) I know you know about the year, having read what you wrote for SFCV some time ago.

If I'm remembering correctly, Hovhannes looked rather like my image of Ichabod Crane. When he conducted he looked at the ceiling. He seemed a very quiet man.

... and from what I just read, he composed his 26th symphony for the SJS. Too bad I can't remember it. (The tape must be out here somewhere.)


I'll have to download some of his music and see what I think of it now. It's been a very long time since I've listened or played it. (emusic carries him.)

Ramble ramble ...

Patty (oboeinsight)

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I went to that concert: Hovhaness was one of my favorite living composers even as early as that. And every time in later years that I'd read that some orchestra out there had premiered his 41st symphony or some number like that, I could think, "Well, I attended the premiere of his 26th."

In fact I was living in Berkeley at the time, and lacking a car, but I came down for as many of the concerts that season that I could get to: that one, the Copland, and I think the Lou Harrison. My wife-to-be, whom I hadn't met yet, sang under the direction of Carlos Chavez and Virgil Thomson, I believe that year.

[(Anonymous)]

Very cool!

That was my first year in the symphony ... what an introduction, eh? I was at SJSU (a sophomore) and I'd hike from the school to the CPA to rehearse. What an adventure those days were!

I'll never forget the Cage concert. Scary (for me anyway) to hear all the boos. (Cage appeared to be enjoying every minute of it.)

I also far-too-poorly (more like a dream) remember Martha Graham sitting on stage, looking like a queen (to me anyway), speaking to the audience at the Copland concert.

Gee ... now more memories come flooding back. Some not terribly great. I guess I should blog about them sometime! (Chavez not being terribly kind to yours truly during Three Cornered Hat, Copland only liking my syncopation when I included a shoulder move with the rhythm ....)

Did we do Harrison's Elegiac Symphony that year? UCSC is doing it and I was trying to remember if we did it then. Hmm. But maybe it hadn't been composed yet. I'll have to look that one up.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was Harrison's Elegiac Symphony that you played that year. I do have a note of that.

B. remembers Chavez's slow, placid way of directing the chorus.

Of course Cage enjoyed the boos. He wasn't a composer, he was an imp. He just wanted the audience to react, to respond, he didn't care how.

But if you're going to write music like that, that's a very wise accepting course to take. Some don't get that. I remember about that time an SFS audience laughing at the silly pompous work of George Crumb. Ozawa looked furious.