‘It’s hard to choose favourite memories of my time with George, there are so many but one that comes to mind was the time I brought the song ‘Yesterday’ to a recording session and the guys in the band suggested that I sang it solo and accompany myself on guitar. After I had done this George Martin said to me, “Paul I have an idea of putting a string quartet on the record”. I said, “Oh no George, we are a rock and roll band and I don’t think it’s a good idea”. With the gentle bedside manner of a great producer he said to me, “Let us try it and if it doesn’t work we won’t use it and we’ll go with your solo version”. I agreed to this and went round to his house the next day to work on the arrangement.
‘He took my chords that I showed him and spread the notes out across the piano, putting the cello in the low octave and the first violin in a high octave and gave me my first lesson in how strings were voiced for a quartet. When we recorded the string quartet at Abbey Road, it was so thrilling to know his idea was so correct that I went round telling people about it for weeks. His idea obviously worked because the song subsequently became one of the most recorded songs ever with versions by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and thousands more.’
The death is reported today in Recife of Naná Vasconcelos, Brazilian percussionist, berimbau player and vocalist who crossed several genres, working with Jon Hassell, Pat Metheny and Jan Garbarek. He was 71.
William Spaulding, Kapellmeister of Deutsche Oper Berlin, has been named to succeed Renato Balsadonna as head of the ROH chorus this summer.
An American, born in Washington DC, Spaulding studied trumpet and piano at the University of Maryland and conducting at the Vienna Hochschule. He has been Associate Chorus Master at the Vienna Volksoper and Principal Chorus Master at the Liceu, Barcelona, for five years.
The first-ever academic conference dedicated to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel takes place this fall at Colorado College. But this is not simply a gathering for scholars and/or enthusiasts. Rather, the conference has been conceived as a “public musicology” event—graciously co-sponsored by the American Musicological Society—from its initial planning stages. It is an opportunity to put on display our collective ability to talk about music familiar to non-academic audiences in ways that are accessible, insightful, engaging, and entertaining.
With one month remaining to our April 8th Call For Papers deadline, I wanted to take this opportunity—on behalf of my co-organizer Joshua S. Duchan (Wayne State University) and the members of our esteemed program committee, Eric Hung (Rider University), Katherine Meizel (Bowling Green State University), and Albin Zak (University of Albany)—to address a few common questions about the conference. With any luck, what follows will encourage participation from those that might otherwise hesitate to submit a proposal.
I respectfully (and playfully) present our Frequently Asked Questions document:
FAQ for
“It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”: The Music and Lyrics of Billy Joel
A Public Musicology Conference Hosted by Colorado College
October 7-8, 2016
Q: Why Billy Joel?
A: First, why not? Joel’s dynamic career spans nearly five decades and he is the third highest-selling solo musician in the United States. A majority of his more than thirty studio, live, or compilation albums have been certified multi-platinum. He currently plays a once-a-month, sold-out gig at Maddison Square Garden. Despite such popularity, however, Joel’s music and live performance has been accompanied by a somewhat uneasy relationship with critics, while scholarship on his extensive output remains scant—a gap that needs to be filled.
Second, given our desire to stage a “public musicology” conference, Joel’s music provides an ideal vehicle to explore the musicological issues and topics that matter to us most in front of a non-academic audience. The popularity of his music will draw attendees who might not otherwise feel inclined to attend a musicologically oriented conference. Additionally, those in attendance will likely be well-versed in the music being discussed. This familiarity provides a common point of departure that might not exist for more obscure musical subjects (not that us musicologists would ever deal in obscurity).
Q: I’m not a popular music scholar. Can I still submit a paper?
A: Of course. One of the goals of the conference is to allow people who would not normally have an opportunity/excuse to work in such directions to do so. However, presenters should not feel bound to the methodologies and approaches utilized by popular music studies. Scholars from a wide variety of fields are encouraged to submit a proposal, including musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, history, comparative literature, sociology, and other related fields. Non-scholars may also submit proposals and will be considered alongside those from academics.
Opera Ithaca presents the world premiere production of Billy Blythe, an American folk opera about the childhood of President Bill Clinton. The opera was composed by country singer-songwriter, Bonnie Montgomery, with a libretto by Britt Barber, both native Arkansans. Bonnie Montgomery recently won the 2016 Outlaw Singer of the Year award at the Ameripolitan Music Awards.
Billy Blythe is a snapshot of Clinton’s life in Arkansas in 1959. His relationship with his family and several events reveal the inspiration behind Clinton’s motivations to achieve success despite challenges. The opera has been given an Arkansas concert as well as a 2010 NYC workshop with Metropolis Opera Project. Opera Ithaca’s presentation marks the official world premiere production.
Opera Ithaca’s production of Billy Blythe will play the Kitchen Theatre April 8th thru 10th, 2016, with four total performances. The opera will be directed by Norm Johnson, music direction by Richard Montgomery, scenic design by Marthe Hoffmann, lighting design by Evan Hawkins and costume design by Anna Grigo. The opera stars baritone, Garrett Obrycki (Opera Philadelphia, Opera Saratoga, Opera Lancaster) as Bill, Dawn Pierce (Opera Tampa, Mobile Opera, Nashville Opera) as his mother Virginia, Erik Angerhofer (Opera Fort Collins, Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Central City Opera) as his stepfather Roger and David Neal (Tri Cities Opera, Syracuse Opera, Baltimore Opera) as his grandfather, Eldridge. The supporting cast includes Kate Clemons, Alyce Daubenspeck, Nathan Haltiwanger, Michael Roddy and Sarah Weldon.
Chicago Symphony lost the excellent Rachelle Roe at the end of 2015 after six and a half years service.
Now Katherine Blodgett is quitting the Philadelphia Orch after 15 years.
Starting a trend?
In 1987, when the Beatles belatedly came out on compact disc, Allan Kozinn conducted a detailed interview with their producer George Martin on how the early tracks were put together.
Wonderful stuff. Sample:
ALLAN KOZINN: I’ve heard that part of “Rubber Soul” was not thoroughly mixed because EMI demanded the tapes to be out in time by Christmas release and that you didn’t have time to finish them. Some tracks are mixed beautifully, and others are actually like “Please Please Me” mixes, with the instruments on one side and the vocals on the other.
GEORGE MARTIN: That’s right, well this is the thing I’m telling you about, when I listened to them again, I thought, “did I really do that?”
ALLAN KOZINN: What I’ve heard, in terms of “Rubber Soul,” was that EMI had demanded it so quickly that you hadn’t had time to finish mixing.
GEORGE MARTIN: No, that’s not true. Putting a voice on the right hand side doesn’t make a record more quick to produce. In fact, there is a reason for it which becomes apparent after a while. One of the things we were struggingling with in the days of “Rubber Soul” was the eventual issue of stereo records and how it was going to vary between mono and stereo. When we started in 62 and 63, mono was the only thing. Gradually, stereo came in, very few people had it, rather like CD in England today; and the first albums, if you sold five percent of your total in stereo form, you were lucky. Gradually that balance changed. There came a point where, instead of doing separate mono and stereo mixes, which I always did, we were looking to produce a stereo only mix.
ALLAN KOZINN: And that didn’t happen until “Yellow Submarine,” which is the same in both formats.
GEORGE MARTIN: Well, I was working towards it.
ALLAN KOZINN: Still, even as late as the “White Album,” you’ve got a different violin solo in “Don’t Pass Me By,” the airplanes coming in at different times in “Back in the USSR.” They were clearly still entirely separate mixes.
GEORGE MARTIN: Yes, we were still doing different things then, but I was still working towards the compatibility, and in fact my attempts on “Rubber Soul” were to find a decent mono result from a stereo record. As you know, if you put something in the center, it comes up four dB louder in mono than it does in stereo. But if you tend to balance your things between one side and the other….And also, I was aware in those days that the majority of record players in the home were built into kind of sideboards, where the speakers were about three feet apart, and the stereo picture was a very near mono one anyway. So I exaggerated the stereo to get a clearer effect. These were experiments. It wasn’t a question of rushing, I really was trying all sorts of things.
Read the full intensive interview here (reproduced with Allan’s permission.
The US-based soloist suffered concussion in 2013, resulting in memory loss and speech lapses.
At Duke University this week, she underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan to see what she could learn about the workings of her own brain. Bravely, she allowed Duke to film it.
Struggling English National Opera has added Louise Jeffreys, Director of Arts at the Barbican Centre, to its board.
Good move?
She knows her way around but is not a raiser of cash, which is what ENO needs most – and soon.
Two Barbican bosses, John Tusa and Nick Kenyon, have previously sat on the ENO board. The seat is practically ex officio.
On the positive side, Louise has worked at both Bavarian State Opera and as tech director at ENO.
press release
Today, 9 March 2016, ENO announces that Louise Jeffreys is joining the ENO Board of Trustees with immediate effect.
Louise Jeffreys is Director of Arts at the Barbican Centre and is responsible for the formulation, implantation and delivery of the Barbican’s artistic programme and strategic vision. In particular, Louise has led on developing the Barbican’s relationships and presence in East London, resulting in a wider reach to a more diverse audience, and increasing income from rental and commercial deals, as well as partnership funding. Louise will contribute to ENO’s artistic and strategic vision and will sit on the Artistic Committee, led by fellow ENO Board Member Anthony Whitworth-Jones.
Jeffreys was previously Head of Theatre and Arts Projects at the Barbican, running bite(Barbican International Theatre Events) from 1999.bite became one of London’s most innovative artistic programmes, bringing leading international performers to the UK and co-commissioning some of the most influential artists and productions of the last decade.
Prior to the Barbican, Jeffreys’ previous roles include Administrative Director at the Nottingham Playhouse, Head of Production at Bayerische Staatsoper and Technical Director of English National Opera.
Retired cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, now principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire, has launched a broadside in the Guardian against the Simon Rattle-led campaign for a new concert hall costing half a billion pounds.
Julian’s case: We’ve spent £111m on doing up the Royal Festival Hall. It is now good enough.
Just because a concert hall doesn’t bathe its performers in a comforting wash of sound doesn’t mean it is not a good hall for the listener. It is no coincidence that some of the greatest performances I have ever heard have been at the festival hall. It has proved to be the exception to all known acoustical rules. In fact its acoustic distinguishes the men from the boys, and the finest musicians raise their games accordingly.
