After about 50 recommends to check out NPR's Radiolab, I finally decided to take Huff up on it this morning. I am not yet finished my first episode, but it is concluding as I type this. Radiolab is hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich and I must admit it is a pretty fantastic program. If you have a job where you can sit and pay attention to an hour-long podcast I highly recommend it as a way to pass your time at the office. It is hard to listen to if you can't really pay attention, because you miss a lot of what's going on. But if you can really tune-in it might become a new favorite for you.
I checked out the episode entitled Musical Language. This is the plot description:
What is music? How does it work? Why does it move us? Why are some people better at it than others? In this hour, we examine the line between language and music, how the brain processes sound, and we meet a composer who uses computers to capture the musical DNA of dead composers in order to create new work. We also re-imagine the disastrous 1913 debut of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring...through the lense of modern neurology.
All of the segments in this episode were really interesting. One highlight for me was an investigation of the Speech-to-Song Illusion. Basically the concept of this is if you hear a spoken phrase repeated a couple times, it begins to take on the character of song. The example here is pretty amazing. This is actually the exact example used in the show. Their is a recorded excerpt of a couple of sentences of a woman speaking, and after the excerpt concludes they loop the phrase "sometimes behave so strangely" (Play "Listen: Sound Demo 1). You don't really get what is happening at first, but on the play back this phrase takes on a songlike character that the rest of the paragraph doesn't simple because you've heard it repeated a number of times. I highly recommend you listen to at least Sound Demo's 1 & 2 to get the full effect. I heard the beginning portion of the podcast in my car this morning, and as soon as I heard the phrase it popped out as being "music" instead of "speech." Neat!
Other highlights for me were an investigation of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (a favorite composer of mine). In 1913 Igor Stravinsky premiered "The Rite of Spring" which was a revolutionary composition, full of harsh harmonies (not reallly for today, but in 1913 they were harsh), and asymmetrical rhythm, and is a portrayal of the Pagan sacrifice of a girl in Spring. Anyway, during it's 1913 premier the Rite of Spring induced a riot within the first 3 minutes and the piece wasn't even performed in it's entirety. Supposedly a lot of people in the building actually liked it, but a LOT of them hated it starting fights and shouting. The very same piece was performed a second time one year later to rave reviews and pushed Stravinsky into superstardom. Radiolab looks into why the first time it was performed it caused a riot and the second time it made Stravinsky so famous that the piece was used in Disney's Fantasia:
There's a lot more great stuff in just this one episode, so I can't wait to check out more. They are all available for FREE on iTunes. So you can put a bunch in an iPod and have them saved for a boring day. Really good stuff. Thanks, Huff...what are other favorite episodes?
Along the same lines as this podcast, check out this video of Sarah Palin Sings. (I guess this goes along with Ricky's post from yesterday as well):
This is a short ten-minute animation by Canadian film-maker Richard Condie. I'll be honest and say that I really wasn't a fan of this after my initial viewing, but this second time it really started to grow on me. Huff really loves this one. The short exchanges between the husband and wife are my favorite parts, and I really love when he says he isn't sawing. Pretty good. This will only take up ten minutes of your day, so take a look.More info on Richard Condie at his website.
I am pretty sure every single one of my readers is familiar with the work of Soviet-Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. I would actually bet money on this. If you think you are not familiar with his work stop reading this post now and call me on the phone and bet me some money on this. A lot of money, I would put it up. The reason I am so confident in this is because if you have ever been to the circus and seen dogs jumping through hoops, or a person spinning plates on TV, or a guy on a unicycle Khachaturian's Sabre Dance has probably been playing in the background. It has also been used in the Simpsons, and is the theme music for the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. If you are still unsure how Sabre Dance goes here is a youtube clip:
Now if you recognize this and are a friend of mine, chances are you have experienced my favorite pop culture reference to Sabre Dance. Remember Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? Remember that amazing scene of Pee-Wee making his breakfast and then pouring Mr. T cereal all over his waffles? OK, so the music playing isn't Sabre Dance. It is Breakfast Machine by Danny Elfman (who scores all of Tim Burton's films), but check out the scene below and pay attention to the music (it also plays throughout the rest of the movie). There is no way that Sabre Dance wasn't the direct influence for the mood and character of Breakfast Machine. See for yourself:
So there is your introduction to the great composer Aram Khachaturian. Although Sabre Dance is his most well-known work I would definitely not consider it his finest. I haven't actually heard the Cello Concerto recommended by Huff in it's entirety, just this clip of a child-prodigy playing one movement of it on Youtube (sorry for all the youtube today).
The clip did interest me enough to download the whole three-movement work when my downloads refresh on emusic.com. If you are looking to expand your classical horizons you could do worse than to start with the work of Khachaturian. The larger-scale orchestral works might be a good place to begin. The Suite from Spartacus is another very popular work which has been featured in a number of movies. Additionally, Sabre Dance is just one small part of the ballet Gayane, and although I have beaten the Youtube clips into the ground today one more example of Khachaturian's work, also from Gayane, is this classic scene from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssy:
Additionally since the whole basis of this blog is recommendations and since I already mentioned Danny Elfman in this post, I would urge you to check him out as well. My personal favorite is the score to Edward Scissorhands, but there are plenty of others out there as well (the original Batman, Nightmare Before Christmas, and Big Fish all come to mind immediately).
