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pim_derks
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« Reply #3555 on: 08:27:15, 13-09-2008 » |
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Now spinning:  Martin Butler - Tin-Pan BalletLontano conducted by Odaline de la Martinez I like the Tin-Pan Ballet and the Bleugrass Variations are a real triumph. Writing a good piece for just one instrument (the violin) must be a challenging job, I suppose. |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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martle
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« Reply #3556 on: 08:35:31, 13-09-2008 » |
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Pim, I think writing a piece for solo 'melody' instrument (as opposed to the piano, say) simply has a different set of challenges to meet than writing for multiple instruments. It's not necessarily 'more difficult'.  To all the Stevie Wonder fans: what do you all think of Songs in the Key of Life, which was always my favourite album (closely followed by Innervisions)?
Ian, yes I like 'Songs &...' very much too, but like Stuart I can find it a bit of a slog in one sitting. There's just so much invention in both albums and so much wonderful singing - what a productive era the 1970s was for Stevie, eh? |
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Green. Always green.
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #3557 on: 08:41:09, 13-09-2008 » |
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I love TBP, Pim: the first Butler work I ever heard. It took a couple of days to get beyond that first track on the disc, because I connected so strongly with the music that I had to play it several times to see if it really was as fabulous as I first thought it to be: many, many hearings since then have failed to change my opinion.  |
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pim_derks
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« Reply #3558 on: 08:54:02, 13-09-2008 » |
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Pim, I think writing a piece for solo 'melody' instrument (as opposed to the piano, say) simply has a different set of challenges to meet than writing for multiple instruments. It's not necessarily 'more difficult'. Interesting comment, martle. I heard many solo pieces (live and on records) and often I had the feeling that I was "missing something". That's why I'm impressed by the Bluegrass Variations: this eleven minute piece is interesting from the beginning till the end. Does anyone here know Jacques Ibert's Caprinela for solo violin? I always liked that piece. Ibert wrote more solo pieces, for harp, guitar, flute and also for the cello. |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #3559 on: 09:00:55, 13-09-2008 » |
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To all the Stevie Wonder fans: what do you all think of Songs in the Key of Life, which was always my favourite album (closely followed by Innervisions)?
I love that too, and the first two sides are a joy. The quality of studio production on these Stevie Wonder albums are among the best I have ever heard, too. I sometimes find listening to the whole of Songs in the Key of Life a little wearing, though, as not everything quite comes up to the same standard and it is more than a double-album, after all... My sentiments almost entirely. On an 'if you love that, you'll like this, too' note, I should probably mention David Sancious, who apart from being a much used session musician, has produced some fine albums of his own, particularly True Stories and the solo album The Bridge, still never silvered as yet, although a You Tube link has a live version of the title track from the latter which captures about 25% of the original's appeal. |
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #3561 on: 09:30:06, 13-09-2008 » |
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Absolutely, martle: that opening is still hair-on-the back-of-the-neck stuff for me, even now.
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Morticia
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« Reply #3562 on: 09:46:04, 13-09-2008 » |
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Ta for that, Martle. Wonderful stuff! It's been many a moon since I listened to it.
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richard barrett
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« Reply #3563 on: 09:47:31, 13-09-2008 » |
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Innervisions: this track is, of course, the jewel in its crown:
best thing he ever wrote innit. |
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #3564 on: 09:53:28, 13-09-2008 » |
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Fantastic to listen to that again. T-i-n, in particular, if you haven't heard Songs in the Key of Life, have a listen to this track. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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stuart macrae
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« Reply #3565 on: 12:03:42, 13-09-2008 » |
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Innervisions: this track is, of course, the jewel in its crown:
Ah, while we're having a Steve-a-thon, I'd say that track (Living for the City) used to be my favourite too, until I recently gave some serious listening (on good quality LP and replay equipment) to this song, Visions, which suddenly struck me as unsurpassably fine. The ornate interlocking accompaniment from 4 intruments (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, double bass and keyboard) makes a sort of 3-dimensional collage which is exquisitely suited to the song's subject matter and imagery. |
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martle
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« Reply #3566 on: 12:26:36, 13-09-2008 » |
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That is indeed a fine number, Stuart. But there are so many from that period. Lingering with Stevie a while longer, I've just remembered this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gkqGCnK-nwNow, if that's not a classy ballad I don't know what is. Harmonically very sophisticated (get the middle eight in the major! And the way he gets back to the minor again!) and, for 1974, superb production. I'm having fun on youtube today. I'm picking out some wonderful Evan Parker and Coltrane soprano sax stuff... may post some later. |
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Green. Always green.
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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #3567 on: 12:42:51, 13-09-2008 » |
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NS youtube clips of Steve Wonder
My childhood was the nineteen-eighties. I scarcely listened to music on the radio, instead practicing piano and listening to classical things owned by my parents, on LP. The popular music that managed to trickle through to me was nothing like this. I associate Steve Wonder even now with some of his most commercially popular stuff which as members here will probably disavow. "No new years' dayyyy.... to celebrate.... no choc'late covered candy hearts to give awayyyy"
Even now, I hear synthesized sounds and immediately they 'signify' something disingenuous to me. A part of me immediately turns its knee-jerk nose up at the phrase 'production values' -- I am learning to listen differently, but it's taken a very long time. Does this count as an admission of Embarrassing Ignorance? Probably.
Anyway, this whole album, insofar as it's available on youtube, is very nice indeed.
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martle
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« Reply #3568 on: 12:47:50, 13-09-2008 » |
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In Stevie's case, that's just it though, turfers. After the 70s he goes downhill in a major way (at least as far as writing goes).
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Green. Always green.
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richard barrett
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« Reply #3569 on: 12:49:14, 13-09-2008 » |
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Even now, I hear synthesized sounds and immediately they 'signify' something disingenuous to me. A part of me immediately turns its knee-jerk nose up at the phrase 'production values' -- I am learning to listen differently, but it's taken a very long time. Does this count as an admission of Embarrassing Ignorance? Probably.
Someone will be along in a moment to tie you up and drag you to the New Musicology Torture Chamber. |
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