This is my life

From the Avengers commentary (Joss Whedon):

I always think of Schubert as Mr. Treacle.

Why, you know, Joss? So do I. I just hadn't ever been able to put it so succinctly before.

Thanks to amethystfirefly for pointing me at 750words. She has positive things to say about it, and just from what I checked out, it seems pretty nifty, and I certainly need the motivation. Unfortunately my computer froze up after I wrote my 750 words yesterday, and I didn't get credit for them. :(

But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about innovators and culminators and how they relate to Malcolm Gladwell's article about precocious geniuses and late bloomers.

( Cut for length. )

I saw Star Trek for the second time today and loved it just as much as I loved it the first time.

I still feel that while the soundtrack was good, it was not particularly Star Trekkian, and as I napped this afternoon I became conflicted about whether that made the composer faily, or the screenwriters a little bit clueless.

( You see, here's the thing. Spoilers within. )

Verklärte Nacht was effectively the 1902 Viennese premiere of one of the most notorious twentieth century composers ever: Arnold Schoenberg.

It's funny; Shoenberg didn't set out to be contrary. His music isn't that awful squeaking and squawking that has given twentieth century music a bad name. The problem is, he had these radical ideas about music - that every note is equal, that there isn't any more hierarchy to them than what the composer decides - and while he was masterful at still creating something lush and beautiful with those strictures in place, not everyone was (nor, to be fair, was everything he wrote, either). Not everyone needs to be; there's something to be said for music that's not easy to understand... but not all of it was just difficult - a lot of it was just awful and it was Schoenberg that opened the flood gates for all those talentless hacks.

There's a story that Schoenberg was once asked if he was 'that dreadful composer'; he answered yes, that someone had to be, and no one else wanted to, so he took it on himself.

He believed that his twelve tone theory would create tunes that people would whistle as easily as Puccini's... but unfortunately, his infamy means that people don't often give his music (or a lot of twelve-tone music) a chance. I'm not sure you'll come away from this one whistling, but it is beautiful and deserves a chance to be heard. (Do take a look at that first link up there; the work itself is fascinating and based upon a poem in which a man takes a walk with a woman who is pregnant with another man's child, and falls in love with her - Schoenberg wrote the work in the three weeks after he met the woman he eventually married.)

Originally written for string sextet, it is often done by string orchestra (as it is here), and the thicker sound just makes the chromatic harmonies even more beautiful. True story: I went to see this performed because I knew it was a classic of the twentieth century repertoire by a composer I needed to know. I girded my loins, expected not to understand a damn thing without a score in front of my face, and then was stunned into joyful silence by a beautiful, Brahmsian piece. It is truly gorgeous and romantic and not at all what you expect when you hear the name Schoenberg.

Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg. Performed by the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra led by Esa-Pekka Salonen. The album, if you'd like to hear more. (Includes String Quartet #2, which, listening to it again, I am really enjoying... though the third movement has voice and is a little on the crunchy side, comparatively (fourth movement with voice is less crunchy - or at least more emotionally obvious and listenable).)

If you like this and are interested in something a little more daring by Schoenberg, I highly recommend Pierrot Lunaire, another work based on poetry, for small ensemble and a vocalist who does Sprechstimme, speak-singing.

I love Aaron Copland. Besides the fact that he is the first American composer most people can name, he was a shameless self-promoter, and probably would have loved the fact that his music was used for the "Beef. It's what's for dinner." commercials.

He was also homosexual. He was tight-lipped about it, but he was out, and it's kind of brilliant that a gay man's music is known as some of the most recognizably American music of all time.

Appalachian Spring was a ballet written for another American great - choreographer Martha Graham. It was originally written for 13 instruments, and it is just so eerie and beautiful with this sparse instrumentation. The full orchestral suite is lovely too, but the original ballet music? Gorgeous.

So here, Appalachian Spring Suite, ballet music for 13 players.

This is my orchestral conductor from grad school, Keith Clark, with an orchestra basically made up of the ridiculously talented studio musicians in LA, who are hired for their ability to sightread anything (they generally do movie scores), the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. If you like it, the album includes An Outdoor Overture (a more mature and complex work) and Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson, a beautifully haunting song cycle sung by Marni Nixon.