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December 12, 2006
TT: A meme for musicians
David King and Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus are circulating a musician questionnaire whose results are being posted on their blog. If you're curious, go here and start scrolling down to see the replies, which are pouring in.Needless to say, I'm strictly a recovering musician, but I found the questions (and answers) so fascinating that I decided to play as well.
* * *
Give us an example or two of an especially good or interesting:
Movie score. Chinatown, Election, Sunset Boulevard.
TV theme. The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Equalizer, Miami Vice. (I also love "Woke Up This Morning," the A3 song used as the theme to The Sopranos.)
Melody. Standards: "Autumn in New York," "The Bad and the Beautiful," "Lucky to Be Me," "One for My Baby." Classical: Bach's chorale prelude on "Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele" and the slow movement of the Ravel G Major Piano Concerto. (In reflecting on this question, I was struck by the fact that comparatively little of my favorite post-1960 pop music is strongly melodic, at least in the traditional sense.)
Harmonic language. Jazz: The music of Maria Schneider. Classical: Aaron Copland's middle-period music.
Rhythmic feel. Jazz: Johnny Hodges' "Squaty Roo" and the Bill Evans Trio circa 1962. Classical: The Rite of Spring. Pop: Booker T. and the MGs in a medium-tempo groove.
Hip-hop track. Neneh Cherry's "Manchild."
Classical piece. Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto and Benjamin Britten's Turn of the Screw.
Smash hit. The Beatles' "Revolution."
Jazz album. My Funny Valentine: Miles Davis in Concert, Jim Hall and Ron Carter's Alone Together, Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life, and From Austin High Comes Jazz (one of the first 78 albums, recorded in 1940 by Bud Freeman and His Famous Chicagoans, a band whose members also included Max Kaminsky, Pee Wee Russell, Jack Teagarden, and Dave Tough).
Non-American folkloric group. I almost never listen for pleasure to present-day "folkloric" music, be it American or otherwise. For the most part I prefer my music cooked, not raw.
Book on music. Paul Hindemith's A Composer's World.
Posted December 12, 2006 12:00 PM
