Popular Music - January 2016

Tori Amos - To Venus and Back (venus orbiting)
Tori Amos - American Doll Posse
David Bowie - Never Let Me Down
Deborah Conway - Bitch Epic
Jars of Clay - Jars of Clay
Moloko - Do You Like My Tight Sweater?
Agnes Obel - Aventine
Simply Red - Picture Book
Third Day - Come Together

It so happened that the death of David Bowie perfectly coincided with me listening to one of his worst albums.That's not just my assessment, it's a very widely held view, even by Bowie himself.

Because of my rules about what goes into this blog, most of the albums in my extremely slow and intermittent exploration of Bowie's work don't appear here. Only the albums I've purchased "earn" a mention, and Never Let Me Down is one of the several I picked up cheaply some years ago. That was mainly on the strength of the title track which I've always enjoyed a fair amount. But the album on the whole does tend towards being tedious.

It does mark a significant milestone, however, in that it represents the end of "Bowie that I know". That's not entirely true - there are one or two later songs that I'm familiar with. But it's the end of the era where I'd be confident of knowing most of the singles. It's the end of the era where Bowie could be expected to be heard on the radio. It's the end of the 3-disc best-of I eventually purchased, before deciding to go on this fuller exploration.

So off I go into the unknown. Whether there will be any reports back here will depend on whether I purchase any of the later albums.

But while I'm here let me say this: even though my own reaction to his work is sometimes mixed, the impact of the man on popular music is undeniable. At its best his music is superb, but the greater impact was often from his stylistic choices. Every modern pop star who changes their aesthetic from album to album owes a considerable debt to Bowie.

Classical Music - December 2015

Bach, J.S. - Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Oh how fleeting, oh how trivial)
Bach, J.S. - Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ (You Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ)
Beethoven - String Quartet No.10
Beethoven - 'Kakadu Variations' for piano trio
Brahms - Clarinet Quintet
Chopin

• Fantaisie in F minor
• Ballade No.3
• Allegro de Concert
• Tarantelle
• Polonaise, op.44
• 2 Nocturnes, op.48
• Prelude, op.45
• Waltz, op.70/2

Dvorak

• String Quartets 7 to 10
• Piano Trios 1 and 2
• Piano Quartet No.1
• String Quintet No.2
• String Sextet

Grieg - Piano Concerto
Handel - Keyboard Suite No.7
Haydn - Symphonies 84 and 99
Holmboe

• Symphonies 1 to 5
• Concertos 1 to 9
• Concerto for Orchestra
• Violin Sonatas 1 and 2
• Bagatelle No.1 'Arabesque'
• Molto allegro scherzando for solo violin
• Romanian Suite for piano
• Sonatina Briosa
• Piano Suite
• Small piano pieces
• Lagerkvist songs (partial)
• Hominis Dies
• Jeg ved en urt så dejlig og bold (I know a plant so lovely and fine)

Holst - The Planets
Janacek - Mladi (Youth) 
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.1
Schubert - Moments Musicaux
Schubert - Piano Sonata in A minor, D.784 
Schumann - Papillons
Sibelius - Symphony No.4
Thybo - Concerto Breve for organ and brass quintet 
Vivaldi - Beatus vir (1739 version)

It's fairly obvious that there were explosions of listening activity around certain composers in December...

The (somewhat sputtering) chronological exploration of Chopin's music reached a fairly important milestone, in a group of works that arguably helped inspire this method of exploration in the first place. Chopin completed his opuses 43 to 49 during one particularly impressive burst of activity at George Sand's house in Nohant, in the summer and autumn of 1841.

I've listened to this set of works as a unit once before, and devised a sort of concert of them in an order I find musically satisfying. It's just over an hour of music, and while not all of it would rate as Chopin's very best, none of it is bad and it does include some major highlights such as 2 of his finest nocturnes and the epic Fantaisie.

For Dvorak, I suddenly decided to listen to all of the chamber works I own, from String Quartet No.7 onwards. The starting point was not entirely arbitrary, as this involved skipping the early quartets that Dvorak half-revised or never had published, and starting around the time his career began to take off in earnest.

I'm not sure what brought this on, beyond a desire to get to know many of the pieces better, but the rewards have been excellent. Dvorak is perhaps the most naturally tuneful of all famous composers, and all of these pieces are enjoyable. I think if I was trying to introduce someone to classical music, Dvorak would be one of the first composers I would use.

And then there was Holmboe... having listened to the last of the works I'd purchased earlier in 2015 (the choral work Hominis Dies), I immediately wanted to put those works in context and began a chronological survey. In the second half of December I got through the earliest pre-opus works right through to opus 39.  My enthusiasm for this slightly obscure Danish composer appears limitless.

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The total number of classical works/performances I listened to in 2015 was, according to my spreadsheets, 421.  This is down on the previous year, but more than 2013, and it seems likely to be near the longer-term average.

Beethoven, Chopin and (of course) Holmboe had strong years. My excursion through Bach's cantatas is not gathering momentum with only 17 entries. At this rate it will take me several more years to get to the final disc of the BIS Suzuki series, and I'm unlikely to have any memory by then of the first disc which I listened to in March 2012!

Popular Music - December 2015

Tori Amos - The Beekeeper
Tori Amos, Samuel Adamson and Cast - The Light Princess
Tim Corley - Like Stars
george - Unity
Gomez - Split the Difference
Sarah Harmer - All Of Our Names
Jars of Clay - Jars of Clay
Pearl Jam - Vs
Rachael Yamagata - EP

I'm still a bit behind, aren't I?

Well, let's just deal with the month quickly. The one thing I feel like pointing out from December's list is that I decided to (very slowly) go back through the discography of Jars of Clay. In part this was because I noticed my popular music spreadsheet said I simply hadn't listened to the first two albums since I started the popular music spreadsheet (around the time I started this blog).

And it's not that I mind their debut self-titled album. Far from it. It does, however, suffer from having a number of very similar-sounding songs. Same beats, textures, even same key.

It was a couple of the songs that didn't sound quite so similar, though, that made the album a hit. For example, while 'Flood' does resemble the album as a whole quite a bit, it's just different enough to stand out. Being in a minor key helps.

My total pop music tally for the year was 112 entries. The list consists mostly of albums, although there are a few 'greatest hits' CDs, EPs and singles in there. That's back to 2013 levels, so it's beginning to look like something of an average after a few years of keeping track of this information.

It seems... not enough. Not when own a lot more discs than that and keep buying more. And yet it does represent one work every few days, which isn't bad given the way that I listen and the amount of attention I try to pay to new music in particular. In most circumstances, music is not background, it's foreground.

Classical Music - November 2015

Andresen - Three Norwegian Dances
Bach, J.S. - Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Now come, saviour of the heathen) (BWV 62)
Bach, J.S. - Wohl dem, der sich auf seinem Gott (Happy is the man who on his God)
Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.10 (2 versions)
Brahms - Clarinet Trio
Chopin

• Waltz in A flat, op.42
• Waltz in E flat for Emile Gaillard ('Sostenuto')
• Mazurka in A minor for Emile Gaillard
• Mazurka in A minor for 'Notre Temps' 
• 3 Nouvelles Etudes
• Fugue in A minor 

Haydn - Symphonies 86, 90 and 93
Holmboe

• Cantata Profana 'Frieze'
• Omnia flumnia
• The Heron of Oblivion
• Elder Tree
• What the Beech Tree Sang

Janacek - String Quartet No.1, 'Kreutzer Sonata'
Nørgård - Images of Arresø
Schubert - Piano Quintet
Senstius - Fantasia in D minor
Schumann - Introduction and Allegro appassionato in G for piano and orchestra
Sibelius - Night Ride and Sunrise
Szymanowski - Masques
Vine - String Quartet No.5
Vivaldi - Vos aurae per montes (You breeze through the mountains)

The Brahms Clarinet Trio is one of those works that really connects with me. Who knows why. It's inward, withdrawn music, and something about the way it hesitatingly unfolds makes me respond in ways that bolder music wouldn't.

That this is true is evidenced by the fact that, unlike so many of the works listed in my classical music spreadsheet, which I created precisely because some works just melted into an undifferentiated blur, I can immediately hear bits of the Clarinet Trio when I think of it. I certainly don't know all the notes by heart, but I know the mood, what it evokes. And when that spreadsheet told me I hadn't actually listened to the piece for over 5 years(!), I still had a clear notion of what I would hear when I finally pressed play again in November.

I don't want to just listen to my existing favourites. A key part of my listening decisions is to avoid that. And yet, at the end of the day the reason I keep exploring is to find music like this. Music that, when I need it, I know I will enjoy. Music that moves me.

Popular Music - November 2015

Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk
Tori Amos, Samuel Adamson and Cast - The Light Princess
James Blake - Overgrown
FKA twigs - EP1
Patty Griffin - Servant of Love
Incubus - A Crow Left of the Murder
Lior - Autumn Flow
Wendy Matthews - Cafe Naturale
Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
Katie Noonan's Vanguard - Transmutant
Agnes Obel - Aventine
Pearl Jam - Lightning Bolt
Foy Vance - Hope
Rachael Yamagata - Chesapeake
Rachael Yamagata - Loose Ends

In November I made a decision to try and focus on the new pop music purchases I'd been making recently. Some of which I'd already listened to, some of which were just sitting there waiting, and some of which only arrived during the month.

It was a partial success. I got to know a few of these albums much better, which was the intention. I listened to a few without really paying close attention (not least because I broke my usual rule that I must first listen on CD before using the iPhone, meaning that in some cases I didn't ever sat down with the booklet lyrics). There were some new ones that I didn't get to during the month.

"New" purchases also included Foy Vance's album, which I can tell you for certain I purchased in October 2009, because I know where I was and he signed it for me. I've finally listened to it! However, it's in the 'not really paid close attention yet' category.

Of the things that I paid more attention to, Autumn Flow is worth talking about because I had in mind to buy Lior's debut album many times over the last decade and just never made the leap until now. There was always something else that was on special or a higher priority. I'm now kicking myself a bit, because it really is a very fine album indeed that I should have started enjoying a long time ago.

It starts with what is essentially the only hit song Lior has ever had, 'This Old Love', which is beautiful, but the great strength of the album is that it is in no way a stand-out track. The whole record is at a consistent level of inspiration. If you think this is good... well, in my opinion the whole album is just as good.

And there is enough change of mood to keep things interesting. The tone does tend towards mellow, but unlike some albums that get a bit boring as a result, there are plenty of songs that pick up the pace without ever feeling that they don't belong.

Of course, there is also new Tori Amos on this list, but she is the composer rather than performer (apart from a couple of bonus renditions at the end). And The Light Princess is truly fascinating. I'd go so far as to say Act I is a masterpiece. The economy with which Amos and librettist Samuel Adamson communicate the story is at times breathtaking and brilliant, especially when two parallel scenes are playing out in two kingdoms at once. While I'm no expert on musical theatre, the performances generally seem excellent.

Act II is just a little weaker, with one section in particular that (so far) does not work so well for me. In part this is probably because the one performer/character that I find a bit strident and grating takes centre stage and is basically called on to be as strident as possible, then to wallow in sentiment.

But overall, it's an impressive piece of work, that took many people many years - not just Amos and Adamson, but a whole cast and crew, and a director and other people at the UK's National Theatre who shaped and guided the creation of the work long before it reached the stage.

And now I get to keep the aural parts of the results, at least, in my library. Well done everyone.

Classical Music - October 2015

Bach, J.S - Mache dich, mein Gest, bereit (Make yourself ready, my spirit)
Bach, J.S. - French Suite No.1
Beethoven - String Quartet No.11 'Quartetto Serioso'
Brahms - String Quartet No.2
Chopin

• Piano Sonata No.2
• Ballade No.2
• Scherzo No.3
• Impromptu No.2
• 24 Preludes, op.28
• 2 Nocturnes, op.37
• 2 Polonaises, op.40
• 4 Mazurkas, op.41
• Mazurka for Emile Gaillard
• Mazurka 'Notre temps' 

Haumann - The Day the Cherry Trees Blossomed
Haydn - Symphonies 86 and 104
Holmboe

• Suono da Bardo
• Hevjið í homrum (Raise in the Passes)
• Lauda, anima mea 

Jørgensen - Quintet for brass
Norby - Herbst-Lieder (Autumn songs)
Schubert - Piano Sonata in A, D.664
Sibelius - Symphony No.3
Szymanowski - Metopes 

Hmm. Well, I was supposed to be catching up in January, and instead I fell even further behind.

The part of this list I think is worth talking about is the Chopin. This selection of pieces all come from a period around 1838-40, although parts of them were started a bit earlier than that and took until then to come to fruition.

And that means we're in the period of Chopin's relationship with George Sand, and their trip to Mallorca which seems to have been a mix of storms, sickness and working on some rather fantastic music. I don't know whether it was good for Chopin, but the results are certainly good for the music-listening public.

By now Chopin was a fully mature and powerful composer. But then one remembers that he was still only in his late 20s, turning 30 in 1840.

For me, the 24 Preludes are an absolute masterpiece, conveying a huge range of moods in fragments that are often tiny in themselves yet coalesce into a single whole. Some of them are definitely capable of being played on their own, but it's the way that they contrast with each other when played in sequence that really impresses me. There's two levels of structure going on at once, the small-scale and then the 40-minute expanse.

All of the pieces from this period, though, are worthwhile. And they show that while Chopin knew how to be pretty and decorative, as he had right from his teenage years, his mature music has a great deal of depth and sophistication.

Popular Music - October 2015

Tori Amos

• Under the Pink
• American Doll Posse
• Night of Hunters

David Bowie - Scary Monsters
Kate Bush - Never For Ever
FKA twigs - EP1
Patty Griffin - Silver Bell
Incubus - If Not Now, When?
Joe Jackson - This Is It (The A&M Years 1979-1989)
Jars of Clay - Good Monsters
John Mayer - Continuum
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Joni Mitchell - Hejira
Agnes Obel - Aventine
K T Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Megan Washington - There There

Well, hello there... I set up the bare bones of this post at the end of the appointed month, but consciously put it aside on the grounds that there were other things I had to work on more than this blog. Readers should know by now that production of posts is erratic, even though the keeping of records is not.

There is in fact quite a bit to talk about here: new purchases and new listens primarily.

FKA twigs' first EP was not quite a first listen I think, but it was a new purchase and actually it was rather challenging to find a way of parting with money to express my appreciation for the music. For reference, EP1 can be found on Bandcamp, tucked away under the artist name "[artist]" in somewhat typical FKA twigs fashion.

Or you can just download it in a million places, or listen on youtube. The artist herself helpfully provides all the videos, including here. Personally the visuals aren't a major selling point for this EP, but it's an opportunity to listen. Perhaps the easiest single track to try is "Breathe".

But for me, making a purchase was important. Because this is wonderful music, in a genre I'm only occasionally attracted to. I'm so unfamiliar with it that I had to double-check just now that "trip hop" was a suitable term for this particular flavour of electronica. What's so great about it is the delicacy of touch. In fact, having listened to some of FKA twigs' later work, I find some of it less immediately appealing because the beats are heavier. EP1 is 16 minutes of ethereal, erotic music.

Agnes Obel's Aventine was another case of a new purchase after previous listens. I was introduced to Agnes' music at a party earlier in the year, liked what I heard, and made a note to try more later.

And honestly, part of my reaction is that I shouldn't like this music. It is very simple, even simplistic, with the most basic pulsing piano bass lines that would be barely distinguishable from song to song were it not for the fact that some are in duple time and some in triple. Add a few strings and Agnes' dreamy vague lyrics, and that's it.

But by golly, it works. And it works because the mood, the atmosphere of this music is pitched so perfectly. It's a sparse, intimate sound that evokes mists and twilight and fairytales. There's an air of magic about it.

Lastly, I should mention Silver Bell almost by way of apology over the ridiculously long time it took me to listen to it after receiving it as a gift. I wasn't ready to listen. I guess I didn't want to mix up my Patty Griffin albums. I was still coming to grips with Downtown Church and then there was American Kid... and so Silver Bell sat in my collection, much in the same way that it sat in record company vaults for many years.

My understanding is that a lot of Patty Griffin fans did in fact hear a bootleg of the album in the intervening period, but for me, hearing what should have been her 3rd album but ended up being her 8th has been a really interesting experience. It's a curious time capsule of sounds, and even of songs as some of these tracks ended up on other albums. There are things here that make perfect sense as a follow-up to her 2nd album, Flaming Red, and things that I'm not sure sound quite like anything else in her catalogue.

A fuller listening retrospective may be required to place it in context...