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"Is rap poised to initiate a pan-African renaissance? Is music journalism just an industry mouthpiece? Is genre determined by social, not sonic, factors?"
These are some of the questions posed by Pop Montreal's Symposium, which begins tomorrow and runs until October 5th.
But if all that is too cerebral for you, on Thursday Montreal musicians collaborate to bring the music of Neil Young to North America’s oldest porno theatre, the legendary "erotic movies" theatre, the aptly named Cinema L’Amour. They'll be performing Tonight's The Night from beginning to end. Ah, Montreal, always imaginative, and often making music news.
But this is not the only Canadian music news today, post Polaris. Folks in Beaumont, Alberta are celebrating as they can boast the first semifinalist in the Hockey Anthem challenge. There were 14,871 entries, five have been picked, and the semifinalists will be played in their entirety on Oct 4 on CBC TV at 9 p.m. local times.
That's the video of Melody Day, a song from the Caribou recording, "Andorra," which took home the Polaris Prize last night, a critic's choice award that burst on the music scene a few years ago, with its $20,000 prize, its mandate of being about the quality of a single Canadian recording.
As one of the critics in the final jury, I can say that all ten short-listed recordings had their strengths, but from my perspective this recording from beginning to end is excellent, and one that you can go more deeply into on every listen. (If you haven't heard it before, you may think, huh, Brian Wilson, and that's there for sure -- but also so much more.)
So much more will be played today on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.), and Rich will be talking with the man behind Caribou about his Polaris win, live on the show.
There's got to be a morning after, and it is here, post-Polaris Prize. And the winner is (insert drum roll) Caribou!
More on Caribou later this morning on the Radio 2 Blog, but for now, if you don't know his music but are curious, take a listen here to a few tracks which will give you an inkling of the many-layered beauty that is Caribou. And to hear more tune in Tuesday afternoon to Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.).
Also on Drive today -- Rich will delve into the ECHO Songwriter's prize, which is "designed to identify what's next and what's best in current independent music." This translates to five songs which were nominated by a jury of music critics -- which were then voted on by the public, online. (The voting has closed, but unless they took the songs down overnight, they are still up to listen to.)
Tonight is it, the big day, the holy hoopla resolved. In a few short years the Polaris Prize has come to represent an oft' debated but significant marker of achievement in Canadian music. This year's contest concludes tonight, when all will be revealed, and one of the ten recordings on the Polaris shortlist will take home the $20,000, not to mention the subsequent media attention.
As I'm on the jury, I don't think it's appropriate for me to editorialize about the nominees, but I did want to draw attention to each of them with their thumbnail MySpace category and slogan (when available). If you don't know their music, click on the links and listen to a tune or two, and then you be the judge -- which of these ten would you vote for? You can also tune into Radio 3 at 8 p.m. tonight to hear some of the nominees playing live at the gala event, and the winner will be announced at around 10:00.
So here they are. In no particular order, honestly:
September 29 marked the launch of the Ron Sexsmith Contest -- the prize, Ron Sexsmith comes to your living room to play a private concert. And Ron was kind enough to virtually drop by the Radio 2 Blog and answer a few questions as the contest launched. [NOTE: Contest is now closed.] Modest, to the point, and only requiring coffee -- here's Ron:
1. Ever been the prize in a contest before? How does it feel?
This is the first time. It feels weird. I don't feel like much of a prize.
2. Can you share your "house concert rider" in advance, so potential contest winners know what to have on hand?
Coffee. That's about it.
3. For someone used to playing to crowds in concert halls, what's the challenge of playing to crowds on the sofa?
The challenge is to not switch on the TV which is what I normally do when I'm on a sofa.
4. Some of the music on your beautiful new recording, Exit Strategy Of The Soul is described as "shadow gospel." Lovely description...but what does it mean?
Well, it feels like a spiritual album without all the guilt and rhetoric that tends to come with most religions. "Shadow Gospel" is not my term actually. Someone on the internet had described one of my older discs as shadow gospel and it seemed to fit in general with this record too.
5. Where do you go (literally or otherwise) to do your best shadow gospel writing?
I like to write on my old upright piano at home. It's slightly out of tune but in a good way I think.
6. You co-wrote one of the songs on the album, "Brandy Alexander," with Feist. (Maybe not in the shadow gospel camp...) You weren't channeling "Days Of Wine And Roses" were you?
Not really. I was drinking a Brandy Alexander at a party and Leslie Feist was there. She asked me what it was and I told her it was the legendary"rock'n'roll" drink that John Lennon and NIlsson were drinking the night they got thrown out of the LA Troubadour in the 70's. A few days later Leslie emailed me a rough lyric and I went to my piano and wrote the tune.
(note: Days of W&R plot brief -- Jack Lemmon falls in love with Lee Remick, a non-drinking secretary. They marry, he introduces her to Brandy Alexanders; it's all downhill from there...)
Yeah, it's a slippery slope.
7. What do you turn to for comfort/sustenance, musically speaking?
Judee Sill mainly these days. I love Bing Crosby, Dusty Springfield, Gordon Lightfoot.
8. Who would you like to have come and play in your living room, if you could pick anyone?
Probably Kevin Hearn or Kurt Swinghammer... Bob Dylan perhaps.
If you want Ron Sexsmith to come to your home and scrapbook play guitar and sing, today marks the beginning of your chance to have him do just that with the CBC R2 Ron Sexsmith House Concert Contest.
Here's how it works. Each day between 7 and 8 am, Tom will play a song from Ron's new recording (it's lovely, by the way) on Radio 2 Morning. And, each afternoon between 5 and 6 pm Rich Terfry will also play a song on Drive.
So listen during those time periods, write down the name of the song and the day of the week. You need a total of three songs/dates to enter -- which you do at the Ron Sexsmith House Concert Contest site, once the contest is underway.
The contest runs from today, Monday Sept. 29 through to Thurs. Oct 9th, and there will be a live draw from all entries on Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) with Tom Allen on Monday, October 13th.
And stay tuned to the Radio 2 Blog -- a Q&A with Ron Sexsmith coming up around 11 a.m. this morning.
There was a time when the TV theme song ruled. Probably at around the same time as the TV show when watched in real time ruled.
Tonight on Tonic (6 p.m.) Tim Tamashiro features some TV themes gone jazz, from those good old days. Actually no days pre-PVR were truly good in terms of ease of TV viewing, but they were definitely better days in terms of signature musical themes composed specifically for a particular show. (Although I would make a case for the creativity behind taking an existing piece of music and cleverly re-working it, as was the case with the theme used on Weeds, Malvina Reynolds Little Boxes, or on The Wire, Tom Waits' Down In The Hole.)
Tellingly the jazz versions of themes that Tim is playing are from shows like The Price Is Right, The Waltons, and The Flintstones -- old shows. Gone, it would seem, are the days when a TV theme song was part of the aural lingua franca. Or as Pop Vultures put it:
"Once upon a time, each television show had a memorable tune that would imprint itself on the collective pop culture psyche. I mean, who among us does not know every single word to The Brady Bunch song? Nowadays, we get digitized letters (Lost, Supernatural) or eight bars of instantly forgettable music (Grey’s Anatomy). Is that really the best they can do?"
Personally I wish I could forget the Brady Bunch theme, but that's neither here nor there.
The Soul Of The Fiddle is the name of a special one hour documentary by Canadian documentarist Cindy Bisaillon (who has done work for CBC Radio's Ideas, btw).
The documentary looks at four extraordinary violinists, Yehudi Menuhin,
Stefan Stéphane Grappelli, Jean Luc Ponty and the late Canadian fiddler, Oliver Schroer. She gathered the interviews over three decades, and they touch on the distinctive individual musical terrains of each man, revealing a commonality -- becoming channels for music that gave them all a timeless joy.
Although not hugely and internationally famous in the manner of the other violinists in the documentary, Oliver Schroer had a remarkable impact on the musicians and audiences he encountered. In this doc you can hear him playing and speaking about his relationship with the fiddle, and it also incorporates one of his performances from his final concert, in June of this year.
When Oliver Schroer passed away there was a real outpouring of emotion -- some of that expressed right here on the R2 Blog. But for those who don't know his music, today's doc is one glimpse into a unique man and musician.
Here's another, a performance he did at St. Bart's Church in Gibsons B.C., based on the music he created while walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which led to his Camino recording, and to this piece, The Field Of Stars .
Sunday Afternoon In Concert (Sunday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT) meditates on heroism today. Well actually we don't know if host Bill Richardson will be in lotus position, but we do know that some of the music on the show connects to the theme of heroism.
You can hear two season opening concerts from two orchestras -- the Orchestre Symphopnique De Quebec and Symphony Nova Scotia. Music includes Glinka's overture to Ruslan And Ludmilla, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Alain Lefevre as soloist, as well as an interview with Yoav Talmi about his 10th year at the helm of OSQ.
And from Halifax, the world premiere of Peter Allen’s piano concerto, Hurricane Juan, taking place almost exactly five years since this storm hit Nova Scotia during September of 2003. The composer has written as follows about his work:
"This piano concerto, commissioned by the CBC for performance with Symphony Nova Scotia, is a portrait of Hurricane Juan, a storm that lives on in the memory of all Nova Scotians. The work is in five movements, depicting the 24 hours before, during and after the storm. The orchestra and piano alternately portray the emotional charge of both the community and the hurricane."
Please continue reading for the rest of the daily highlights.
Alex Ross, he of The Rest Is Noise fame (and recent recipient of the MacArthur, so he's now a certified genius to boot) has been quoted as saying "The overarching problem with classical music is the tuxedo." One way around that is to take the tuxedo off, something Katherine explores today on In Tune (Saturday 5:00 p.m., 5:30 NT).
The main trend involves not a literal taking off of the tux though, it's a trend towards nudity in the world of opera. Last winter in Paris at a production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress I witnessed this trend myself. It was but one of the arresting moments in the production, but arresting it certainly was. (Also commented upon by Intermezzo in a blog post with the compelling headline Tenors In Their Underpants, Part 2. Part two no less!)
And more recent productions are stripping down as well, for instance in the opera The Fly, based on David Cronenberg's movie of the same name, Canadian baritone Daniel Okulitch spends much of the opera without benefit of a costume. Why the nakedness? No doubt some will see it as an attempt to provoke, others as a lessening of taboos, still others as a way of keeping up with the times -- it's become quite typical for models, for example, to appear in a state of semi-nudity. (On the catwalk, I mean.)
It could also be viewed as a gimmick, or as a genuine attempt at an artistic expression that moves towards a more naturalistic view of what it is to be human, naked, with all our beauty and all of our frailties.
Today on Saturday Afternoon At The Opera ( Saturday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT) you can hear the first Canadian incarnation of the Operalia competition which took place in Quebec City earlier this week. Previous competitions have been held in Paris, Madrid, Tokyo, Los Angeles, among other major cities, and Quebec City was chosen in part to honour its 400th anniversary. (It too being a great city!)
The Operalia competition was begun by Placido Domingo, (pictured here), and here's why:
"I am often asked how Operalia came into existence. Throughout the years, I have always taken a special interest in promising young singers and the enormous difficulties these artists face as they start out their careers. It has become clear to me that talent alone is not enough; it is also essential for young singers to come to the attention of those impresarios, managers, casting directors, conductors and stage directors who can further their professional careers."
A major programming note for this Saturday September 27th to note off the top. (Yikes, end of September already!) Canada Live (8 p.m.) and The Signal (10 p.m.) team up tonight to present live music from all ten Polaris Prize nominees. The Polaris, should you not be familiar with it, is for a Canadian album judged solely on artistic merit, not sales, essentially a best Canadian recording of the year prize, to the tune of $20,000 for the artist or band who wins -- the winner will be announced at a gala on Monday night.
But tonight you can hear the contenders, in live performances recorded by CBC, featuring: Kathleen Edwards, The Weakerthans, Two Hours Traffic, Basia Bulat, Shad, Caribou, Holy F**k, Black Mountain, Plants & Animals and Stars.
So tune in to R2 tonight at 8 p.m. across the country as hosts Alan Neal and Pat Carrabré present a special "Polaris Prize edition" of Canada Live and The Signal this evening. (And Monday night you may want to listen to Radio 3 if you want to catch the gala broadcast live at 8 p.m. as well.)
And here are the rest of the broadcast day's highlights:
The episode title for this week's edition of The Nerve: Music & The Human Experience might start out sounding a tad like a Cole Porter song, but it's all in the parentheses: Enchanted, Entranced (Music & Spirituality).
This weekend the show, (heard on Inside The Music Saturday Edition 12:00 p.m., 1:00 AT, 1:30 NT on Radio 2, with a repeat on Sunday Sept. 28 on Radio 1 at 8 p.m., 9AT, 9:30 NT) takes a look at music and religion. Holy big subject, if that's not being too irreverent. But seriously, the connections between music and religion -- music as a way of elevating the spirit, connecting with the divine, creating religious community -- are vast and varied.
On Saturday's broadcast you'll hear range of opinions from people of various faiths about how music heightens or informs the religious experience -- as well as yes, enchants and entrances. Some of those guests include Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (pictured here) whose own spiritual pilgrimage to Armenia is partly told through music in the film about that journey, A Long Journey Home, Daniel Lanois, Richard Dawkins, and others.
Marimba madness! Everything must go! Well, not quite, these are keepers, if you're a fan of music made on marimbas.
It is the weekly R2 Blog Friday Video Fest, and today we do indeed celebrate music for marimbas, and some pretty spectacular marimba videos. (Spectacular in a couple senses of the word.)
Why marimbas? Why not?!
Meet the Marimba Ponies:
Stone Marimba (yes, that's stone as in made of rocks) by firelight with Sigur Rós:
Reg Kehoe And His Marimba Queens:
[As the original poster noted: "Slap bassists, hold onto your dentures."]
Early Friday evening on Tonic (6 p.m.) Katie will feature a live set of music with Zoot Sims and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis -- and Oscar Peterson on piano, recorded live on a 1975 European tour.
And you know, that provides the R2 Blog with the perfect excuse to link to her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean's speech about Mr. Peterson during his memorial concert last January, which includes a personal memory of the fifteen years that she spent in the Little Burgandy neighbourhood of Montreal, the same neighbourhood where Oscar Peterson grew up. It's a nice, and clearly heartfelt speech about the great pianist.
Well, before you know before what, the guy with the scythe. 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die is the name of a book that came out towards the end of the summer, and even at 1,000 recordings it would be easy to assume that it would be primarily obvious "desert island" picks.
Earlier today I stumbled on the 1,000 Recordings etc. website, and took a look at the list, and was struck by the diversity -- if you filter by artist you start with something from ABBA, then from Dimi Mint Abba (Moorish music from Mauritania) then the Muhal Richard Abrams Orchestra, and in short order you're onto John Adams with the SFSO, etcetera.
The book was put together by music journalist Tom Moon, and in an interview on the NPR website he said that it's driven by the idea that "the more you love music, the more music you love."
As promised earlier, Glenn Gould's thoroughly entertaining (and beautifully sung) So You Want To Write A Fugue -- in honour of what would have been his 76th birthday today. On Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) Julie will be marking the day with various selections of music performed by Gould.
So You Want To Write A Fugue was originally part of a 1963 CBC TV series created by Gould -- the final episode was called The Anatomy Of A Fugue. In it he covered as much as one could cover in an hour about the history of the fugue -- the Maria folks would be pleased to know that he attempted a fugue based on Do Re Me from The Sound Of Music.
But its finale was what really brought the house down, (as much as a house out in front of the TV screens can be brought down), his own composition as performed above, a five minute fugue (which actually is a bit of a history of the fugue itself).
Of course now you may be fired up wanting to sing So You Want To Write A Fugue, and if so, here are the lyrics, in English. If, on the other hand, you want to sing it in Japanese, you may wish to first watch the following:
One final note, if all this has inspired you to write your own fugue, just remember "Now the only way to write one is to plunge right in and write one. Just forget the rules and write one. Just ignore the rules and try."
Today Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) salutes Glenn Gould on what would have been his 76th birthday. Julie will be playing selections including Glenn Gould playing Bach, his famous (or infamous) recording of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 with Leonard Bernstein, as well as his ode to composition, So You Want To Write a Fugue. More on that later this morning -- for now, the rest of the daily programming highlights.
Over on Radio 2 Morning Tom has been receiving interesting suggestions for campaign songs for the upcoming national election, some revealing the suggestor's own politics (eg. To Dream The Impossible Dream for Mr. Layton), and other similarly pointed song titles.
But in the world of stumping it does appear that there is a paucity of music that's strongly connected to the candidates -- very much in contrast to the election process south of the border. Yesterday Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released what is considered "the soundtrack" to the Democratic campaign -- called Yes We Can, (you can listen to excerpts if you click on that link) after the famous tribute video to Obama based in turn on the famous speech.
And the analysis of why candidates use the music they use to pump up their crowds has been going on for months, stateside, with blogs like Dial M For Musicology reflecting on Candidate Tunes way back last January, to cite just one example. Then there are the music videos in support of candidates, for example, famously and weirdly I Got A Crush On Obama.
As noted earlier, tonight there is a special live broadcast of Operalia. It's a competition for up and coming opera singers, begun in 1993 by Placido Domingo. (That's him kicking a penalty shot in July during a charity football match -- he sings, he scores!)
This is the first Canadian incarnation of the competition, taking place in Quebec City, and it will be hosted by SATO's Bill Richardson, broadcast tonight at 8 p.m., and repeated on Saturday Afternoon At The Opera (Saturday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT) this weekend, on September 27th. For more information on CBC's presentation of Operalia, please go to CBC Operalia
Meanwhile, as you await the broadcast, you may wish to read Everything An Operasingerwannabe Always Wanted To Know About Operalia, But Never Got Around To Asking:
1. Dear Placido -- why Operalia?
"I am often asked how Operalia came into existence. Throughout the years, I have always taken a special interest in promising young singers and the enormous difficulties these artists face as they start out their careers. It has become clear to me that talent alone is not enough; it is also essential for young singers to come to the attention of those impresarios, managers, casting directors, conductors and stage directors who can further their professional careers."
2. I think I can do it, once I expand my range beyond a fifth. What's the repertoire?
"For the preliminary selection, each candidate should submit a recording with 2 arias in the original language. They may add a Zarzuela aria if they wish. For the Competition, 4 arias must be prepared in the original language. Contestants may repeat 2 arias chosen for the preliminary selection. They may also have prepared, if they wished, 2 Zarzuela arias. Contestants should bring their piano scores to the Competition."
Operalia is upon us. Operalia, should you not be familiar with it, was founded in 1993 by Plácido Domingo -- its intent to discover new young opera singers. More about Operalia later this morning, but for now, the broadcast details:
Tonight, Wednesday, you can hear a live-to-air broadcast of the big opera competition presented by the SATO crew, in the Canada Live time slot (8 p.m. across the country, 8:30 on The Rock), with the winners announced by Laurie on The Signal (10 p.m.) Operalia will also be rebroadcast Saturday, September 27th on SATO (1pm ET, 2pm AT). Also, on Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) on Thursday Julie will replay the winning performance. (Please see R2's Operalia feature for more info.)
Please continue reading for the rest of the daily show highlights:
Ah, Doctor Peter is in. This week, he offers some reassurance to those suffering from Podcast phobia. But first -- a note on other matters on the technical front.
re: The Playlists -- yes, we are aware that they are down, and yes, it is very frustrating for all concerned. Apparently it is a fairly major technical issue right now that cannot be resolved in the short order that would be ideal -- but you can be assured that people are most definitely on the case, and once it is working again there will be an update here on the Radio 2 Blog. Thanks for being patient (or trying to be patient, which works out to the same thing, really).
Now, over to the good doctor.
"First of all I'd just like to reassure those who might be wondering . . . you do not need an iPod to listen to a podcast. A computer and an internet connection will do just fine.
Why would you want a podcast? 'Free Canadian music,' would be one answer. That comes via the Canada Live podcast. Each week it features some excellent concerts you may want to listen to at your leisure. This week features three Polaris Prize nominees, for example.
So far R2 has one other podcast (which ran this spring and is still available). It's a personal fav: "Beethoven: Nine in 9" in which Bramwell Tovey and Bill Richardson talk about and illustrate the music of Beethoven's Nine Symphonies. Funny, moving (and educational).
So that's the why, here's the how.
There are many ways to subscribe to and listen to podcasts. The geeks (bless 'em) will have their favourite means but for the purposes of this post we'll keep it nice and simple: we'll use iTunes.
You almost expect a punchline -- like, 'well, someone had to.' Ba dum bum. (As a Torontonian I thought I'd better beat anyone else to the punch.) But it is true that the fabulous pianist is doing his first North American "residency," in Canada this week, and the city happens to be Toronto.
What this means is Lang Lang will perform concerts with the TSO, do book signings, and a solo recital which will be recorded by CBC Radio 2 on Friday, and broadcast on Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) on Oct 6, and then again on Nov 9th on Sunday Afternoon In Concert (Sunday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT).
And this brings me to a note about how you can keep track of such things -- CBC R2 now has an online Concert Calendar, which makes it possible to see both what R2 is recording, and broadcasting, concert-wise.
But back to Lang Lang. On Sunday he spoke at a public forum at the Royal Ontario Museum, and according to the Toronto Star report gave several reasons he chose Toronto -- TSO music director, Peter Oundjian, 'a great maestro and friend,' Roy Thomson Hall, and the Chinese community among them. Lang Lang is quoted as saying "this city has lots to offer and is open to many different world cultures. You need an international city to do this kind of residency."
And for those not in Toronto, here's a brief look at the irrepressible Lang Lang, having a little fun both at the piano and not - - titled "Lang Lang Gone Mad," although I think that's a bit unfair -- more like Lang Lang fooling around for the camera, and having a massively good time doing it.
This afternoon you can hear Jason Collett in a "Drive Live," playing live and talking with host Rich Terfry on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.)
Yes, the pride of Bramalea drops by the studio in the third hour of the show, just as he's gearing up for a tour starting in Charlottetown tomorrow, ending in Saskatoon in November. He'll play new tunes from his latest CD Here's to Being Here, taken from a line in a poem by Paul Haines. And here's one reason why:
“I really love the simple sentiment of the title. I think of it as a toast, a raising of the glass to the notion of being present to the moment."
Groucho Marx famously said he said (he took credit for it in his autobiography, though funny how often you see it attributed to Woody Allen) "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." Well, if you are interested on keeping abreast of what's happening on Radio 2, or with Podcasts, here's one club you may wish to join, via the CBC Membership Centre. (Besides, you're not Groucho, as far as we know, nor am I.)
What it is is the new and improved CBC newsletter service, a guide to upcoming special programming, Concert On Demand highlights, and basically anything new about R2. So it's an easy way of knowing what's coming up, quite often in advance of the website.
The Radio 2 newsletter is published every Thursday, and you only get it if you sign up for it. (I believe that's what's called "permission based marketing," because everything has to be called something, but all that means is you sign up for it, and it comes to your email inbox.)
But back to Groucho Marx. He's also credited with saying that "money will not make you happy, and happy will not make you money," which is maybe why he chose to sing this with Frank Sinatra, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Yes, it's out of sync, but still a bit of a hoot, and somehow so timely.
The Broken Social Scene has never struck me as being particularly broken. I mean, there are any number of musicians who are constantly identified as being "sometimes BSS-members," or "presented by BSS." Maybe the point of the name eludes me? Regardless, some who have been in that social scene, broken or otherwise, include Brendan Canning, subject of yesterday's NYTimes "A Night Out With," (an odd but undeniable marker of success in certain circles), and Jason Collett.
Collett is the man of the hour though, or at least of the third hour tomorrow, Tuesday, when he the "Drive Live" on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.). So this is your head's up to tune into Drive tomorrow to hear Jason play some music, and have a chat with host Rich Terfry.
"As a solo artist, Broken Social Scene’s Jason Collett can be dauntingly hard to categorize. On his fourth solo release, Here’s to Being Here, there are touches of Fleetwood Mac–influenced pop rock, Rolling Stones–style grit, Dylan-esque balladeering, and Bob Marley–brand reggae. Obviously, he’s not beholden to any one particular musical genre—but he is the child of one particular decade."
But if you know little (or perhaps nothing) of Collett (aside from "Fleetwood Mac-influenced, Dylan-esque, Marley-brand) here are a few salient details:
Oh, it wouldn't be a Monday if something didn't go awry, would it. Apparently another server crash has the playlists tied up in knots and therefor unavailable for the moment. Will update this space once they are released from the jaws of technological distress. Thanks for your patience.
September 25th UPDATE: Well, it's been a very difficult week, playlists-wise, but they are up and running again, with one or two exceptions (some of the Sunday R2 shows) -- there is continued effort to sort that out, and will hopefully be resolved soon. Onward and upward...
Good morning, and welcome to the work week. (Unless of course you just worked through the weekend, in which case my condolences.) But to the business at hand.
Monday night on Canada Live (8 p.m.) you can hear the Winnipeg homecoming stop of the Wailin' Jennys, (with nary a Jenny among them) a harmony-singing roots band who had been on the road for some time before returning home to play this show. Also on the broadcast, a concert featuring ghazal singer Kiran Ahluwalia with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.
Coming up this week on Radio 2 is a live broadcast of the opera competition, Operalia. It was founded in 1993 by Plácido Domingo -- its intent to discover new young opera singers. You can hear it on Wednesday night at 8pm ET on CBC Radio 2 and it will be repeated next Saturday, September 27th (1pm ET, 2pm AT).
It comes on the heels of much busy news in the world of opera, news tidbits really, rather than headline makers. But some of that news has been most entertaining. So to tide you opera buffs over until Wednesday night, some operaabilia from the past week.
There's something very satisfying for those of us with a taste for dance (including what some would see as the lowbrow end of the artform) to see a kind of dance fever sweeping North America. Much of it is courtesy of So You Think You Can Dance, now with its Canadian edition. Until recently trying to get non-dance people to watch has been kind of like telling an unrequited love that you know he/she would love you if he/she just tried harder.
But now people who formerly sneered at dance (not to mention anything with the words "reality" and TV") are flocking. And this means some amazing dance videos are surfacing -- if you like dance, you must click on that last link and watch them -- really interesting on a dance, musical, and sociological level.
And today Gregory Charles has the dance fever too, so on In The Key Of Charles (Sunday 10:00 a.m., 10:30 NT) he celebrates music connected to dance, with what he's calling "the most eccentric cotillion on radio." That means everything from samba to go-go dancing.
And that brings me to this important note for fans of the show who have been looking for more info on a weekly basis -- Gregory now has an In The Key Of Charles Blog. And over on that blog he's got one of the odder dance videos I've ever seen, at a post called We Can Dance If We Want To.
I couldn't possibly top that video, but here's another kind of oddness connected to dance. In this case no felines though, just angst ridden, hormone driven youths -- the famous dance scene from Jean Luc Goddard's 1964 movie, Bande A Part.
(Movie buff note: Apparently the inspiration for the dance scene in Pulp Fiction. Oh wait, you're a movie buff, you already knew that.)
As noted recently on the R2 Blog, it is the 75th anniversary of the founding of L’Orchestre Symphonique De Montréal, and today on Sunday Afternoon In Concert (Sunday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT) you can hear music from the season opening gala -- highlights include part of Stravinsky’s Firebird, the opening of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5; pianist Lang Lang playing Tchaikovsky; and orchestral "hits" by Ravel.
Bill also features several OSM members who toured to Nunavik to perform a newly commissioned work by Alexina Louie, called Take The Dogsled, for seven instrumentalists and two throat singers.
All that, and music from Newfoundland’s Gros Morne Summer Music and from the Orford Festival of Music in Quebec. And here's what the rest of the day looks (and will sound) like:
Every day there are news stories about music -- and a good place to turn to for your classical music news is In Tune (Saturday 5:00 p.m., 5:30 NT). But there are also music stories that are less newsworthy, and more about ideas. They tend to require more reading, more reflection and more, well, time. Which means that sometimes, in the daily dailyness of life, they get pushed to the back burner. You know the scenario, so much to read, so little time.
So sometimes on the Radio 2 Blog I like to corral some of this recent writing about music in one post, in case you have even less time to nose around the net than I do -- and point you to some of the music issues and concerns that others are having, while we go about that dailyness. Here is some of that writing, on all manner of musical subject matter.
Today on SATO -- Debussy's only opera Pelléas et Mélisande. It's based the play by Maurice Maeterlinck, and this is the crux of the subject matter:
"On a journey through a gloomy kingdom, the prince Golaud happens upon a mysterious girl, weeping beside a forest fountain. He takes her for his wife, but Mélisande's charms (not to mention her long-tresses) also seem to attract the eye of Golaud's half brother, Pelléas."
The Canadian Opera Company production, which was recorded last spring, stars Pavlo Hunka, Isabel Bayrakdarian and Russell Braun.
The opera got varied reviews from the Toronto press -- even those joined at the hip -- The Star headline was "Opera Stumbles In Its Wanderings" while Eye Weekly called it "dramatically compelling." Terrific singers, of course, and on the radio you won't need to concern yourself with the set and whatnot, as did the writer at Yappa Ding Ding. (Unless, of course, you want to know what "Yappa Ding Ding" thought of the set, and that might be difficult to resist, if only to read a blog of this name.)
For more details about the opera cast and characters, and plot synopsis, please continue reading.
You may have caught the first two episodes of the series The Nerve, if not, I'd like to steer you in that direction this morning.
The series is about how music interacts with the human brain, and with our lives. Today's episode is about the use of music as intimidation, as propaganda, as a force to control people (something that's sparked much scrutiny in recent years by authors and bloggers, including Dial M For Musicology). A fascinating subject, and for more info on this week's episode, see the last post.
But enough of dark early morning thoughts -- here is the rest of the broadcast day, beginning with the positive Ms. Molly Johnson and Radio 2 Morning and followed by The Vinyl Café, where music is never ever used to torture, only to soothe the savage breast, beast and whoever else got up on the wrong side of the bed.
You're probably wondering why a photo of a U.S. army personnel is on this post. Well, he's one of the guests on this week's edition of The Nerve, heard on Inside The Music Saturday Edition (12:00 p.m., 1:00 AT, 1:30 NT, also on R1 Sundays 8 p.m, 9:00 AT, 9:30 NT.)
It's called The Pipe, The Drum & The Thunder Run (Music & War), and that is exactly what it is about -- music as intimidation, music used as propaganda, music to get the boys fired up. Bet you're already thinking, hmm, Apocalypse Now, Wagner. And actually that was based on real military techniques and was used during the Vietnam war and since -- I remember reading an account of it being used in Iraq much more recently.
So it's a bit of a look at a pretty dark but fascinating subject this week. Some really interesting guests on the show, like C.J. Grisham, the U.S. army master sergeant pictured here, as well as someone in Intelligence Operations at the National Defense University (didn't even know such a thing existed) in Washington D.C. For the complete list, go to the bottom of this page. No bagpipes will skirl as you scroll down, I assure you.
Misheard lyrics tend to go right back to our childhoods. We sing along, blissfully believing a lyric to be something other than it is, or not caring enough to consciously work it out. (Case in point, for many of my tender years I believed the lyric "life is but a dream," from Row Row Row Your Boat, to be "life is butter's dream." (And so it is, if that new book about how fat is actually good for you turns out to be true. Oh, how we hope.)
But with the advent of the Tube of You, we got video portrayals of misheard lyrics, which became so popular they're even known as "Misheards." As in, "Wow, what an awesome Misheard."
In case you missed this phenom, it's the act of setting visual images of the misheard lyrics to the real music. Truthfully I've yet to find many good ones, but these two still tickle. So, brought to you by the weekly R2 Blog Friday Mini Video fest: Misheards.
Just a quick note -- a server crash has rendered the playlists unavailable for the moment. Hopefully it will be fixed by day's end, so please stand by. And thanks for your patience!
UPDATE! The folks in the lilac coloured lab coats returned, and fixed it. So as of 14:30ish eastern things are up and running again.
Two concerts featuring some Canadian "heavyweights" coming up this evening on Canada Live (8 p.m.) -- first from Bill Bourne, Lester Quitzau, and Madagascar Slim, collectively known as Tri-Continental. They call their mix of blues, celtic, folk and Malagasy rhythms "universal blues," a nice description. And the second show is a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Blue Rodeo's first recording, Outskirts.
Please keep reading for the rest of the day's show highlights.
Tim Tamashiro, host of the weekend edition of Tonic (6 p.m.), tells me that "there's no such thing as a grumpy ukulele player." I wonder if this is true? Certainly there is something to the claim made earlier this year in the NYTimes (Those Four Irresistible Strings), that "What the world seems to need now is something tiny, fun and inexpensive." (And that written before the markets did whatever it is they are currently doing.)
The reason Tim Tam is emailing me about the uke is not to debate its virtues though, or those of its players, but because it is one of the many instruments featured in Tonic's upcoming "All Canada All The Time" feature. On both Saturday and Sunday Tonic "takes the moose by the rack," as a listener/blog reader named Andrea suggested this action be called, by playing only Canadian artists.
And ukulele player (sometimes called "the Wayne Gretzky of the uke" ) James Hill among them, as part of a feature called "String Monsters." You can also hear "Chance Take Hers" showcasing new musical ideas from some of the many adventurous singing Canadian women -- performers like Lori Cullen and Christine Fellows. Other features include "Canadian Jazz Giants." where Tim will play the likes of P.J. Perry, Oscar Peterson, Tommy Banks, Oliver Jones, and well, enough for now -- you can tune in Saturday and Sunday to hear for yourself.
This fall the WSO opens its season (Sept 26/27) with James Ehnes performing the Korngold Violin Concerto. For those of us not in the gateway to the west, we can tune into Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) today when Julie plays the Grammy/Juno winning recording of that music.
Czech composer Korngold was one of those child prodigy types, (some have even compared him to Wolfie), born in 1897 and beginning to compose when he was around eight. It happens. Anyway, his Violin Concerto was written much, much later than that, after he'd moved to the States and had a very successful career writing music for Hollywood -- the Violin Concerto was premiered by Jascha Heifetz in the late 1940s.
You can find out more about Korngold at this (unofficial) Korngold website if you like, and you can also read about his significance as seen through the eyes of conductor/pianist Alexander Frey in a blog post called Thinking About Erich Wolfgang Korngold (posted last year -- 2007 was the 50th anniversary of Korngold's death).
Now, I wish I could post a video of Ehnes playing Korngold, but there doesn't seem to be one available, and besides, I might be stealing Julie's thunder. However, you can do a little contrast and compare if you like, with this interpretation of the first movement, performed by Hilary Hahn.
Most CBC R2 hosts and many of the people who work behind the scenes are also musicians/performers to one extent or another, whether currently practicing or not. (Guilty as charged -- lapsed! Although I am getting the piano tuned...finally.)
Rich Terfy, host of Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.), is definitely not on the lapsed side of the equation via his alter ego as Buck 65. And Thursday evening you can hear him performing with Symphony Nova Scotia, a concert recorded by Radio 2, and broadcast this evening on Canada Live (8 p.m.)
The concert features arrangements of Buck 65's hits like Way Back When and Cries A Girl, but also a CBC commission of a work by conducter/composer Dinuk Wijeratne - a triple concerto for cellist (Norman Adams), Buck 65 on turntable, and percussionist Terry O'Mahoney.
And now to the rest of today's broadcast highlights:
This weekend Canadian Afrobeat band Mr. Something Something are putting on what they say is "Canada's first bicycle-powered concert." (If your band has already been pedaled through to the encore, take it up with Mr. S. Something.)
This is how it works: At the concert (part of the annual Small World Festival) the band provides "green generating stations," you hook up your bike -- then all you have to do is pedal to make sure the music doesn't stop. Actually this might be a good way of assessing a band's favour with the crowd...or not. I'm confident the highly danceable Mr. Something Something will not have the slightest problem keeping the music pumping though.
As with most aspects of life these days, the trend towards "greening" music is a hot one. Or no, I guess a cool one when bike powered. South of the border a folk musician named Peter Mulvey is in the middle of his second annual "No Gas Tour," -- he's biking from stop to stop on his 10-day seven show tour.(He "expects his stunt to save around .15 metric tons of CO2," according to one story, Mulvey Runs On No Gas.)
And music going out to the 300+ judges for this year's Juno awards will not receive the customary CDs -- on Monday they announced they're distributing all the nominated music digitally. (Juno Awards Go Green...)
Today's Drive Live is Matt Mays, he'll join Rich on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.) to talk about Ron Maclean's admiration of his music. Actually, I don't know that they'll discuss that, though it is true. But what is known for sure is that Matt will be in studio to perform some music from his most recent recording, the interestingly named Terminal Romance.
If you don't know Matt's music, today will be a good introduction, audio-wise, although it won't be with full rockin' band, El Torpedos. (He'll be joined by one band member, keyboardist Adam Baldwin.)
But in the meantime, here's a handy cheat sheet on Matt and the band. In fact if you're really pressed for time this could be the How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read equivalent. (With its delightful epigram courtesy of Oscar Wilde: "I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so.")
On Friday you may have heard Ron Sexsmith playing live on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.), well, today you can hear another "Drive Live," it not being restricted to Friday afternoons.
Rich's guest this afternoon is Matt Mays (and one of El Torpedo's, Adam Baldwin), they'll perform music from the band's newest disc -- Terminal Romance. Trivia note: I hear that they're one of Ron MacLean's favourite bands too. (We don't know how Don Cherry feels about them, but we also don't want to worry about that at present.)
More on Mr. Mays and his music later this morning on the R2 Blog, but for now, the rest of the daily show highlights:
You may have noticed an item on the left-hand navigation of the Radio 2 Website that says "Concert Calendar". What, you haven't been looking at the menu night and day? Well, look left -- there it is. And Concert Calendar is a new arrival you will want to know about if you want to know which concerts will be broadcast and when, on Canada Live (8 p.m.), The Signal (10 p.m.) and Sunday Afternoon In Concert (Sunday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT).
Not only that, you can also see which concerts CBC Radio 2 will be recording in the near future in your neighbourhood, and thus become a part of the Radio Audience -- a key role involving clapping, possibly laughing at appropriate moments, and of course, listening.
But now I'd like to hand things off to Dr. Peter, as part of his weekly Tech Q's column, posted Tuesdays, for more info on the calendar and how to use it:
"Here's your direct link to the Concert Calendar. Broadcast Dates have a grey background. Recording Dates have a pinkish background.
This is a calendar so of course you can view concerts by Day, by Week or by Month.
That's it in a nutshell. But for those interested in more details, please read on.
As regular Radio 2 Blog readers know, as well as being a modest Leonard Cohen appreciation society, (see last post), there's also a fondness for the odd baseball reference on the blog from time to time.
Here's one. A few years back the Jays used "Baseball North" as their slogan. And the idea that baseball could be a fine Canadian game, (albeit with few Canadian players), played on fine Canadian soil turface, seemed to really strike a chord with the fans, they whooped it up whenever the slogan was flashed around the ballpark.
But when it comes to the music game, or more accurately, the art of making music, there is no concern re: the numbers of Canadian players. Quite the opposite, it's something of an embarrassment of riches. Remember when some years back the NYTimes famously wrote about the Montreal scene, as though it was almost a novelty that excellent music should come from north of the border? Well, now when you read international music press, it's much more of a given.
A reflection of the excellence of some genres of Canadian music can be seen/heard via the upcoming Polaris Prize. As a member of the "grand jury (an honour, a responsibility) I've been having an engrossing listening experience going through the short list (excellent musicians like Kathleen Edwards, Caribou, Shad, Plants And Animals -- see the Polaris site for the full list). And at times listening to Rado 2 has been a a kind of mirror to that experience -- hearing some of these Polaris nominated bands (and many others who were on the long list) popping up on airwaves.
It's a pleasure hearing some of this music getting national airplay. But with nose to computer screen I can't say that I've been doing any actual tabulating as to what percentage of music being played on R2 overall is Canadian. However, some of my colleagues have -- and one of them passed along a little info the other day that will give you a sense of the extent to which Radio 2 is celebrating Canadian music.
• In the new R2's first week of operation (Sept 2-8), there were 675 tracks from Canadian artists, musicians and composers, that’s 60% Canadian music. Compared to the first week of March 2007, before the network started making changes, that’s a 58% increase in the number of Canadian tracks played.
• Rich Terfry’s Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.) devoted 73% of his show to Canadian singer-songwriters in the first week. (And speaking of Mr. Terfy's programme -- the "Drive Lives" continue tomorrow with an appearance on the show by Matt Mays -- more on that tomorrow on the blog.)
Since we're on the subject of Canadian music -- the folks at the weekend edition of Tonic (6 p.m.) have really taken the maple leaf by the stem (what else could it be, the back bacon by the bun? any ideas welcome) -- this upcoming weekend they are playing 100% Canadian music. Why? Because, as host Tim Tam told me, there's so much Canadian talent to play --- so why not devote the entire Tonic weekend to "outstanding Canadian talent and nothin' but."
Regular R2 Blog readers know that the blog is, on occasion, something of a modest Leonard Cohen appreciation society. Even if, to paraphrase Nancy White, we know he will never bring our groceries in.
The festival's intention was "to acknowledge his [Cohen's] incommensurate talent with the appropriate ceremony," and to do so they brought together artists who they viewed as "influenced by his universal and immortal songbook."
Those performers included Katie Melua, Serena Ryder, Madeleine Peyroux, Garou, Chris Botti, Lhasa de Sela, Steven Page, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Zachary Richard, Thomas Hellman, Michel Pagliaro, Adam Cohen, and Joe Lovano -- and you can hear highlights on tonight's broadcast.
And here is the rest of the broadcast day, in brief:
Say what you like about the blogosphere (go ahead, say it), but one thing you can say without meeting much opposition, I should think, is that it is simultaneously extraordinarily dull and extraordinarily amusing. Much of the dullness vs. amusing lies in individual taste.
In the former category, pour moi, there are epics about the knitting of car seat blankets and extolling the cuteness of cats lolling on keyboards, waiting to have their tummies scratched. Why, some blogs even trumpet dullness as a virtue, for instance The Dullest Blog In The World.
My favourite post is called Thinking About Putting On Some Music: "I was in a room carrying out some routine activities. I began to consider playing some music on the stereo system. I looked at some compact discs for a while, but didn't put one on."
Of course when it comes to music blogs there are plenty of humdrum ho-hums, but also plenty that are not. Again to underscore -- a very subjective matter, of course. But here are a few recent finds that struck me as leaning to the amusing side of the equation:
I remember the first time I saw k.d. Lang. It was in the early days, when she was channeling Patsy Cline, helping to invent cowpunk, and enjoying a good humoured poke-in-the-eye attitude about what a country singer had to look like. It was a lot of fun.
But a few years ago backstage at the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame, waiting to produce an interview with Ms. Lang, I heard her sound-check, singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah -- and was completely awestruck. I don't think there was a soul in the place who wasn't in tears, or near to it. The version posted here, from 2004 on Britain's Jools Holland show, will give you some idea.
Tonight Canada Live (8 p.m.) broadcasts a concert that is more recent than either of those events though -- k.d. Lang recorded at Massey Hall featuring songs from her recent album, Watershed. As you'll know, if you're a k.d. follower, most of her previous recordings tend to be somewhat themed -- but not Watershed. And this is how k.d. herself views it.
"Watershed is like a culmination of everything I've done -- there's a little bit of jazz, a little country, a little of the Ingénue sound, a little Brazilian touch. It really feels like the way I hear music, this mash-up of genres, and I think it reflects all the styles that have preceded this in my catalogue."
And what have the responses been so far to her tour of the new (and some older) material? Well, here's just a sample from her U.K. performances:
Monday has rolled around again is it tends to do, before you even got to the grout in the bathroom with that old toothbrush or sorted your tax receipts. Oh well, it was probably ultimately more rewarding to catch up on your sleep and potato chips.
But here's something to energize you of a Monday morning, if you are k.d. lang fan -- tonight her recent Massey Hall performance will be broadcast on Canada Live (8 p.m.) Just a few months after launching her latest recording, Watershed, she played a sold-out date at Massey and Canada Live was there with their microphones (and cables, don't forget them, that's where the real work is) to record.
More on Ms. Lang a little later this morning, but for now, I'd also like to steer you to a Q&A with k.d. posted around the time that recording was released, called Watershed Moment.
And here are the rest of your daily show highlights:
Thanks to Ask Alice: Classical Music Agony Aunt, I was introduced recently to The Cello Challenge. I picked up my virtual bow, and massacred Camille Saint-Saëns The Swan as it has never been massacred before. Yes, I learned something vague about bow speed, but was it worth it? I doubt Saint-Saëns would think so.
Naturally others have tried the game already, and given some thought to the whole notion of online music games, and their value to the people who create them - in this instance the Berlin Philharmonic. For example, Drew McManus at his blog, Adaptistration.
"As a standalone game, Cello Challenge is cute," says Drew. "But I don’t know if it is worth the amount of resources it cost to produce the game and all the bandwidth a flash heavy site like that ultimately consumes."
One of baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau's epitaphs is said to have read, "Here lies the god of harmony." (He was also born in Dijon, which is neither here nor there really, except for us mustard-lovers it's a nice Rameau factoid, if not as weighty as the epitaph.) Anyway, Rameau is also credited with some of the most graceful and lovely dance music ever written, and a quick study, too -- most accounts suggest his Pygmalion was written in eight days!
This past August Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver created a performance of the Greek myth of Pygmalion that brought together singers, instrumentalists and dancers from Vancouver and Montreal -- and you can hear some of that music today on Sunday Afternoon In Concert (Sunday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT).
A review in The Vancouver Sun of the production called it "one of the high points of Festival Vancouver," and went on to describe it thusly:
"It was almost unbelievably beautiful. Watching it, you imagined it being done in 1748 and could well see how it must have enchanted people, that is, if the first Pygmalion was anything like the amazing tenor Lawrence Wiliford. This was a voice that owed its origins as if to something supernatural with a concluding aria dense with ornament and florid with long brilliant lines. It all came off spectacularly and Suzie LeBlanc was memorable, as well, as the statue."
This afternoon on Sunday Afternoon In Concert (Sunday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT) CBC R2, Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver present baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau's Pygmalion, bringing together musicians (and dancers, though we may miss that aspect) from Vancouver and Montreal. Featured performers include soprano Suzie LeBlanc. Also on the show today, music from Le Festival de Lanaudiere and the Toronto Summer Festival -- for more information, stay tuned to the Radio 2 Blog, full details coming up late morning.
For now, here are the rest of your daily show highlights:
If you've ever played in a band, sung in a choir, or maybe just hung out with other human beings, you will know that while generosity and kindness abound, it is also our nature to be competitive, ambitious, and, perhaps more than anything else...to complain. We like what we like, we don't what we don't. This can cause conflict.
That's why "Agony Aunts" were born, and why people never seem to tire of seeking advice -- even though frequently the advice is not heeded. (Aside: At the physiotherapist the other day I noticed a cartoon where a physiotherapist says to the patient: "Here are a series of vital exercises that you can take home and ignore." Heh.)
Anyway, back to advice giving. On In Tune (Saturday 5:00 p.m., 5:30 NT) Katherine introduces "Ask Alice... Classical Music's Agony Aunt."
Alice answers questions from the mundane: "Does it matter if you get into a famous conservatory?" to the less so -- questions about backstabbing flutists and husbands who criticize one's interpretation of Beethoven. (Note to husbands: Have you learned nothing in the time you've been married?)
Today's SATO broadcast of Regina has been called "a toxic tale of avarice in the Old South," which certainly sounds like good opera potential. What is it about the south that engenders these tales, anyway? A question for another day, I suppose. For now, here's the scoop on today's broadcast, background courtesy of SATO and Pacific Opera Victoria, whose production it is:
"Regina Giddens and her two brothers are an acquisitive nouveau riche southern family who have fuelled their greed through cynical marriages, the exploitation of workers, and now theft and murder. With a lucrative business deal in their sights, they attempt to outplay each other in a destructive quest for profit and power. It is Regina — as mother, sister, wife, and aunt — who is most venomous, callously bullying her family to get what she wants. She may be victorious, but is left alone, as her daughter Alexandra finds the strength to escape the cycle of destruction."
It's based on Lillian Hellman's 1939 play The Little Foxes, if you've ever seen it you'll instantly have an idea of the prevailing atmosphere. As for the music, here's what the background material on the work says: "Marc Blitzstein's adaptation intertwines jazz, blues, ragtime, spirituals and dance forms with hints of Copland and Bernstein, to create a new genre — American Verismo — as delicious as apple pie with a chaser of bourbon and arsenic."
Remind me not to order that, next time I'm south of the border.
One other thing I should mention -- "JJ," the publisher of the popular opera blog Parterre Box Presents La Cieca appears on SATO today. "Small Towners Crash Big Time Radio!" the headline screams. Hopefully "JJ" will not. Although what "JJ" has to say may be a scream, if the blog itself is any indication.
Please keep on reading for full Regina cast details and the synopsis.
First item of business: Today on SATO you can hear the Canadian premiere of Marc Blitzstein's musical drama Regina, in a Pacific Opera Victoria production. It's based on Lillian Hellman's wonderful (if stressful to watch) 1939 play (and subsequent movie) The Little Foxes. This production stars mezzo soprano Kimberly Barber, and you can read much more about it a little later this morning right here on the Radio 2 Blog.
Few things got the music & evolution theorists' knickers more knotted than when Steven Pinker famously came out with the expression "auditory cheescake" to describe the place of music in evolution. It was red flag to bull, and people are still charging.
Well, a new CBC R2 series called The Nerve, in its second week tomorrow on Inside The Music Saturday Edition(12:00 p.m., 1:00 AT, 1:30 NT, also on R1 Sundays 8 p.m.) takes a look at the past few years of hot debate over changing ideas of music and evolution, with an episode called In The Key Of DNA.
It's Friday, it must be Music Video Fest time, a tradition well into its second week. And today, in honour of last night's launch of the Canadian version of SYTYCD (PVR'd in my house, due to differing viewing habits -- will have to watch over the weekend) it seems timely to celebrate with some music videos connected to dance.
1. Because we should all know how to do an Egyptian sand dance:
(Begins at :20)
2. Because slightly distressing mashups are slightly distressing:
Because the dancing is jaw-dropping:
(Begins at 2:43)
Looking way ahead to tonight's edition ofThe Signal (10 p.m.), weekend host Pat Carrabré will be playing something you may have missed when it was first broadcast, (see Idea Of North), Tanya Tagaq's interpretation of the music of Glenn Gould.
And a bunch of brand new new music too -- for some of Pat's thoughts on what he'll play, hustle on over to The Signal Blog.
Both Signal hosts always plays a nice cross-section of international and Canadian performers, but it's interesting how much more Canadian music is being played these days on R2 -- in the inaugural week of the New 2 there was a 58% increase in the number of Canadian tracks played on the air from oh, about spring of 2007. And of course to hear more of that music, here is the guide to today's show highlights:
Here's a new twist in the ongoing saga of bands trying to find clever ways of releasing their music that will ultimately benefit them: let your fans have the music, but only if they'll play it themselves.
Prince may have had his newspaper CD scheme, Radiohead did their name-your-own-price download, but Oasis' Liam Gallagher (who previously said their new recording would be given away "over my dead body") and the boys have come up with an inventive scheme:
Free sheet music for three unreleased songs. Now that's inspired. The songs are from their forthcoming recording Dig Out Your Soul, so it's not like people will have heard them before. For fans that should be nip to cat -- get the music, learn the songs, then hear what the band does with them.
The project has backing from a seemingly unlikely source, Arts Council England; the goal is to promote learning to read music. Apparently more than 21 % of Brits play an instrument, and guitar sales are excellent (while recorded music sales continue to drop). And, icing on the cake -- sales of sheet music are also increasing. Put it all together, and what do you have? More people making music.
You may have noticed that the playlists are not appearing on the R2 site as they usually do, much to the chagrin, dismay and anxiety of any number of people at CBC -- not to mention your own frustration in trying to track down info on music played.
Here's what's happening -- the server that feeds the playlists crashed and this has resulted in what is commonly lumped into that vast category called "technical difficulties." As we speak people (probably wearing white lab coats) are diagnosing the problem and dealing with it.
Will let you know when this is fixed. Meantime, sorry for the inconvenience.
UPDATE at 15:45:00: A very nice person in English Media Production Support just emailed me to say that the playlists are up and running again -- and that she doesn't actually wear a white lab coat. (I think hers is lilac coloured, but she wasn't saying.)
Heads up! Tomorrow, Friday September 12th Ron Sexsmith is the first "Drive Live" guest -- he'll sit down with host Rich Terfry on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.), play some tunes, talk some talk -- this in the third hour of Friday's programme.
You'll also want to tune in for details about a contest involving Ron Sexsmith. Hint: Does the phrase "House Concert" mean anything to you?
Ron Sexsmith is for sure one of Canada's most respected songwriters of the post-Cockburn generation. (Which is not to slight Cockburn's creativity, still going strong!) So having Sexsmith kick things off is perfectly in keeping with Drive's drive, as it were, to play great Canadian music. Speaking of, here's a nice stat for you -- in the first week of programming 73% of the music Rich played was Canadian. (Who sits there with a calculator to figure this out? Not I, thankfully, but I have it on good authority.)
But back to Ron. He's been quietly writing and singing songs others love for decades, and here are a few reasons why, courtesy of Metacritic:
The Cuban-Canadian music scene has grown in leaps and bounds (such a cliché, but fairly accurate) in the last decade, and tonight Canada Live (8 p.m.) showcases one of the performers to emerge from that scene: composer, arranger, keyboard player and bandleader Roberto Linares Brown.
Brown is still only in his early thirties but already a veteran, having toured with Adalberto Alvares band world-wide for four years. Now Linares Brown lives in Toronto, and he recently released his first CD, Que No Se Pierda La Esencia (That The Essence Not Be Lost). The performance you can hear tonight on Canada Live is from the CD release concert.
And here are highlights from the rest of the broadcast day:
Every day on the R2 blog you can expect info on the day's programming, (Today On Radio 2), a focus on programming or performers (Daily Feature), and music news, views, and what you could call musical oddities. (Music News & Views). Let's file this one under oddities.
You may know the joke behind "more cowbell." If not, you must look here. It's important to laugh at least once a day; this will provide that opportunity.
Re-watching it led to some of the usual trawling online (seems more like trawling than surfing to me, no great cresting waves in my computer) I came across this website, MoreCowbell.dj, where cowbell accompaniment can be added to mp3s. You upload a song, then add some cowbell. Go ahead, try it, I dare you.
This, naturally, led to musing about the cowbell, such a humble instrument. Or is it? At Rad Monkey Electric Cowbells (for those who "dream about the tone, practice [cowbell] relentlessly,") you can get amplified cowbells. A joke? I think not. There you can also learn more about vintage cowbells, treasured bells with names like "Chicken Nugget," and "Copper 'Flask.'"
Then there's The Cowbell Project, an archive of "some of the top cowbell songs ever." What a resource. I'd totally forgotten about the cowbell in ABBA's Dancing Queen, and who knew The Beatles leaned so heavily on the bell? I have to go back and listen more carefully.
Why the cowbell? As the folks behind The Cowbell Project say:
"It's important never to allow yourself to think you know the answer because this does not serve the composer or the music."
-Kent Nagano
The same could be said about life, no? Interesting words from Kent Nagano, conducter of the OSM.
Today on Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) Julie features a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 performed by the MSO under Nagano. Nagano is said to be charismatic, and also a deeply interesting guy. Here, should you wish it, is some proof (followed by sources):
1. Nagano's first big break in music was given to him by Frank Zappa.
(Nagano Grooves)
Good Wednesday morning to you. And Wednesday being something of the turning point in the week (or "hump day" as some so elegantly put it) it seems timely to turn one's thoughts slightly in the direction of the upcoming weekend -- and a fine series running on CBC R2 called The Nerve, Music And The Human Experience. It explores some of the hows and whys of music -- as in why are we so receptive to music, and how does it work in our little brains?
Coming up a little sooner than that though, this evening on Canada Live: a concert with Kevin Parent, a big success in Francophone Quebec. How big? Well, he's won a few major ADISQ awards (and a Juno for Best Selling Francophone Album, Les Vents Ont Changé). If you follow the scene, you'll know his hits, songs like Nomade Sedentaire, Seigneur and Boomerang. That's this evening on Canada Live (8 p.m.)
Please keep reading for the full list of show highlights for the day:
We're entering into uni-nicknamed music awards time, tonight being Britian's big Mercury prize (already underway, for live blogging go here), and upcoming at the end of September, Canada's Polaris. (Full disclosure -- I'm on the Polaris Grand Jury, which is an honour but also requires me to disclose, as well as put Grand Jury in Caps.)
But last night it was the CCMA'sCanadian Country Music Awards, and the big winner was Manitoba's Doc Walker (pictured here with Derek Ruttan and Randy Bachman at the gala last night). Going into the awards Doc Walker's six nominations were second only to Vancouver's Jessie Farrell with 7 (she took home female artist of the year, rising star award and was named top new female talent at an industry gala).
Dr. Peter is in the house again, with our new weekly feature, Tech Q's?, posted Tuesdays. We ask our tech questions relating to Radio 2, Peter answers. After answering any number of questions in last week's post, this week he starts with some reflections on the Tech Q's? column itself. Over to you, Peter:
"Writing a series of 'technical' posts for an audience as broad as Radio 2's is tricky business. Some people will roll their eyes at the simplicity of the things we'll cover. Others will shake their heads at what might as well be written in a rare dialect of some foreign-language.
'Where's the strike zone?' Or more like, 'what league are we playing in?!' (I know Li likes baseball metaphors.) What I hope we can do with the 'Tech Q's?' series is help people to make the most of what CBC Radio 2 offers online.
This is not about being geeky for the sake of being geeky. It's about being able to discover and listen to music in ways that simply didn't exist before. 'Better living through technology!' I say it somewhat tongue-in-cheek but I believe it.
Is this stuff as easy as turning on the radio? No (unless you have your internet radio receiver set up already). Might it provide something which traditional radio cannot? Of course. Is it worth the effort? I certainly think so.
And thank you. (Aside -- Peter, you do know that baseball is life, right?)
I'd also like to thank Peter for the link to the following video he sent me first thing this morning -- it made me laugh out loud, no small feat before caffeine. This is for anyone who has ever felt the frustration of learning new technology. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing, The Book:
Given the emphasis on the new shows on Radio 2's schedule, some of the older ones have been neglected a wee bit so it seems timely to note that Tonic (6 p.m.), Canada Live (8 p.m.) and The Signal (10 p.m.) have launched their new fall programming with fresh shows and music. Case in point, tonight on Tonic (6 p.m.) Katie features part of a concert with the incomparable Shirley Horn, recorded at the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival.
After Shirley Horn died, in 2005, jazz writers around the world tried to conjure up words to express just what was so special about the way she interpreted songs. This description, the opening of a tribute in the Washington Post, gets pretty close:
"No one mined the depths of a lyric the way Shirley Horn did, with a whispery voice that conjured cashmere and cognac. You could lose yourself -- you couldn't not lose yourself..."
And you can lose yourself in that voice Tuesday evening when Katie plays Shirley Horn on Tonic.
But before that, the New 2 day begins bright and early with Tom Allen hosting Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) followed by Julie Nesrallah with Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) and Rich Terfry with Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.).
Please keep reading for the show highlights du jour:
"I believe everything can be communicated through music."
-Youssou N'Dour
Over the weekend I had the great privilege of seeing Youssou N'Dour playing live, for free, in downtown Toronto. Putting aside the woes of standing on concrete for ninety minutes with too many too-tall people, it was amazing -- N'Dour's voice was spectacular. Spike Lee introduced him, Canada's Divine Brown sang the Neneh Cherry part of Seven Seconds Away, it was all pretty thrilling.
N'Dour's performance was in connection with a documentary about him called I Bring What I Love, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on the weekend -- that's where the above quote comes from. Although the movie is largely focused on the controversy surrounding his Grammy winning recording, Egypt, it also features lots of wonderful concert footage. (To see the trailer, click here.)
It being film fest time, music in the movies is at the forefront of some minds (see also They Shoot...They Score.) This morning, in the Toronto Star, there's an interview with trumpeter Terrence Blanchard, about his work scoring the latest Spike Lee movie (speaking of Spike Lee), Miracle At St. Anna. Miracle At St. Anna tells the story of African-American soldiers who fought in Italy during the second world war. And Blanchard, who's written 40-some movie scores had this to say about his work on the new film:
The Idea Of North is the inspiration for the featured concert you'll hear tonight on Canada Live (8 p.m.) In honour of Glen Gould's 75th birthday, and the 25th anniversary of his death, CBC Ottawa commissioned artists from across the country to respond to Gould's radio doc. The performers include Tanya Tagaq, The Flaps, The Creaking Tree String Quartet, Veda Hill, Catherine MacLellan, and Grand Analog. You can hear the music, of course, but also excerpts from Gould's documentary, as well as on-stage interviews with the artists.
If you're interested in reading more about Gould's "contrapuntal radio," (as he described it) you may want to look at the section devoted to this part of Gould's work in Kevin Bazzana's book, Wondrous Strange: The Life And Art Of Glenn Gould. Among other things, Bazzana points out that in Gould's mind "contrapuntal radio" was actually a form of music. (And interesting to think about in terms of what would later come to music via sampling.)
Good Monday morning to you. And although there are many miles to go before you sleep (unless you are working the night shift) you may want to know now about an evening concert on R2's Canada Live (8 p.m.). It's called The Idea Of North, a broadcast that recently took home the Bronze World Medal for Best Music Special at the New York Festivals International Radio Awards.
In honour of Glenn Gould's 75th birthday, and the 25th anniversary of his death, CBC Ottawa commissioned artists from across the country to respond to Gould's famous Idea of North documentary -- and tonight you can hear the results. Performers include Tanya Tagaq, The Flaps, The Creaking Tree String Quartet, Veda Hill, Catherine MacLellan, and Grand Analog.
Today's programming gets underway with Tom Allen and Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.), though, followed by Julie Nesrallah and Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.), and then in the afternoons, Rich Terfry with Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.).
Feel free to CONTACT US if you'd like to respond to the programming you hear.
Now, the rest of the broadcast day on the New Radio 2:
Last week a man sometimes called "The Dean Of Canadian Film Composers," Eldon Rathburn, (pictured here) passed away at the age of 92. His place in Canadian music history is fascinating - he also played piano in early incarnations of Don Messer's band! But it was his work writing music for many NFB films that he is probably best known for. In fact he's also the subject of an NFB doc himself, cleverly titled They Shoot...He Scores. His music is an integral part of hundreds of films.
"It is the nature of cinema itself that it needs music," said Bernard Herrmann in this documentary about that giant film composer -- who scored Citizen Kane and Taxi Driver.
And it still is true. It would make an interesting experiment to watch movies stripped of their music score. In the case of some I suspect they would be like punctured balloons, sans music. The impact of a score cannot be underscored enough, heh.
And it being the era of Lists, no surprise there is no shortage of "top film score" lists, for example the American Film Institute's 100 Years of Film Scores. (You have to log on to see the whole list of 250 nominated scores, but the winner was John Williams' score for Star Wars, and the top ten are at the end of this post. Yes, a Herrmann score is in there -- for Psycho).
Or the Time's Best Soundtracks list. The Adventures of Robin Hood by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is in the #1 spot, and this shames me, since I don't know that I've ever seen it. ("This is Korngold at his best—excitable, cheeky, yet always romantically caring," says the contributing critic. "Cheeky!" Well alright then, I'll put it on hold.)
Today the much-loved Jurgen Gothe launches his new show, Farrago With Jurgen Gothe (Sunday 5:00 p.m. 5:30 NT). Most of the music will come from his own collection, and you can just imagine how rich a collection that must be.
Sounds like an excellent early Sunday evening, dinner-making, trying to ignore the fact that the weekend's almost over show. Or, as Jurgen himself describes it: "Easy to listen to, but not easy-listening."
He also says the show will be: "Quirky without being weird, eclectic without being outré, amusing without being silly. (Well, maybe just once or twice, here and there.)" Can't top that, so I won't try.
Today's inaugural edition features string trios, or more specifically, the considerable musical variety that springs forth from this small assemblage of instruments.
And as with any of Radio 2's shows to see the details of the playlist please click on over to the logically named Playlists, also accessible via the menu located on the left hand side of the R2 website.
Happy Sunday. A few matters of note today, first, welcome to Peter Togni as new host of Choral Concert (Sunday 8:00 a.m.). Peter will be familiar to R2 listeners from Weekender and other programmes that he's hosted, and he's also a composer -- in fact Choral Concert listeners will have heard some of his music on the show in the past. Today he'll feature a concert from the Elora Festival, called Double Double. Peter has personally assured me it has nothing to do with Timmies.
Also in the "new" dep't., the debut of Farrago With Jurgen Gothe (Sunday 5:00 p.m. 5:30 NT) today -- more on that a little later this morning, but for now, let it just be said that the inaugural edition features string trios...and of course the inimitable Mr. Gothe.
And today Sunday Afternoon In Concert (Sunday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT) launches its new season with some major concerts -- three galas celebrating some of Canada's finest musical establishments.
The Banff Centre marks its 75th anniversary with a concert featuring some of its illustrious alumni -- Jon Kimura Parker -- with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 and soprano Tracy Dahl sings music by Schubert and Bernstein.
The Ottawa Chamber Music Festival joined forces with Banff this summer, and presented a concert that brought together the St. Lawrence String Quartet, an early winner in the Banff String Quartet competition, and Banff luminaries James Sommerville, French horn; Desmond Hoebig, cello; and Barry Shiffman, viola. They'll be heard in music by Mozart - the Quintet for Horn and Strings K. 407 - and Brahms' String Sextet No. 2.
And the third concert is from the Quebec 400th celebrations this summer -- The National Youth Orchestrafrom the Palais Montcalm, led by conductor Jacques Lacombe, featuring what my colleagues at SAIC call "real blockbusters" -- and they are - Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Ein Heldenleben ("A Hero's Life") by Richard Strauss. And you know, there is actually more than that on the show, but there has to be some element of surprise, right? As for what else you can hear on the radio today, please continue reading for the day's highlights.
It's always interesting to see how classical music is used in popular culture -- for example to inject a certain gravitas to a scene in an otherwise non-gravitas movie, or maybe to imply something about class or social standing. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but music? Well, as we used to say when we were kids, it does that an "infinity number of times."
On In Tune (Saturday 5:00 p.m., 5:30 NT) Katherine will be talking about a couple of recent instances where classical music has intersected with the fashion industry -- first at Chanel's haute couture show in Paris this summer, where Karl Lagerfeld had tiny organ pipes embroidered onto his new gowns (presumably without embedded audio). This was inspired by an experience he had attending an organ recital -- and at the fashion show the choice of music was inspired by same.
Then, on the fragrance side of the fashion world, Guerlain has based its newest perfume on one of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It's called "Brume d'automne" -- fall mist.
This second example is from the "expected" category. Perfume, atomizers, mist, fall launch...OK, no big surprises there. But the first example is a twist -- organs and haute couture? Interesting.
Fashion within classical music is a whole other story -- maybe Katherine should tackle that in weeks to come. If she does, she could do worse than taking a look at a blog post called Classical Music Spring Fashion Show, a wee photo essay on contemporary classical music fashions.
But for some analysis about how conductors and soloists dress and why -- take a look at Jessica Duchen's recent piece in The Independent, called Style Notes: Classical Conductors Get A Makeover. As to the why end of things, Duchen is direct:
"...classical musicians are as aware as anyone of society's obsession with image. Attractive sponsorship opportunities sometimes materialise from designer brands keen for the classy endorsement of musical stars: Rolex has enlisted the likes of the handsome young conductor Gustavo Dudamel for its adverts, for example. Besides, the arrival of the 21st century has left many asking themselves why they are still dressing for the 19th."
p.s. Yehudi Menuhin had the right fashion approach, circa 1945, didn't he. You can even hear the slogan... Lounge-wear, by Menuhin.
Today Saturday Afternoon At The Opera ( Saturday 1:00 p.m., 1:30 NT) launches the new opera season with Beethoven's Fidelio, a production of the Vancouver Opera, starring Carol Wilson as Leonore, and Richard Margison as Florestan. In this incarnation, the opera is set in eastern Europe at the height of the Cold War.
And here's the plot in ten sentences or less. (Actually am not counting, but best guesstimate of how long it will take):
It's all about the power of pure love, in this case for a condemned political prisoner. Deep within the dungeons of a state prison, Florestan is slowly nearing death, the innocent victim of his political enemy, Governor Pizarro. Meanwhile his loyal wife, Leonore, maintaining her belief that he is still alive, clothes herself in men's garments. (People frequently do this sort of thing in opera and Shakespeare, and yet it so rarely happens in real life. Maybe it's a "back in the day" kind of thing.)
Anyway, she becomes 'Fidelio.' She goes to work for Rocco, the jailer. With courage, compassion, love and other noble qualities Leonore navigates the infatuation of Rocco's daughter (that's what'll happen when you dress up in men's clothing) and gains access to Florestan's cell. Risking her life, Leonore stands up to Pizarro, frees her husband, and liberates the entire prison.
For the complete cast and character and the plot synopsis, please continue reading.
Today as part of the Radio 2 launch of three new shows, Molly Johnson steps in to host the weekend edition of Radio 2 Morning. Welcome, Molly!
Molly is an accomplished jazz and blues singer who has sung aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia before the Prince and late Princess of Wales, and performed for Nelson Mandela and Quincy Jones. Sheesh, no small potatoes.
And she's also a real character -- and I mean that in the most positive of ways. She'll bring that character (not to mention her considerable knowledge about music) to the weekend edition of Radio 2 Morning, which airs from 6-10 Saturdays, and 6-8 Sundays.
(If you'd like to know a bit more about Molly and her new role -- she was the focus of a recent article in the Toronto Star, Molly Johnson Takes Detour Through Radio 2.)
Today also marks the launch of another opera season, and over the next several weeks SAATO will present some Canadian productions and a major operatic event from Quebec City to usher in autumn. In addition to performances from Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto and Montreal, Bill Richardson will team up with his Espace musique colleague Sylvia L'Ecuyer to present Operalia, an international operatic competition led by Placido Domingo. As far as today's opera goes, it's a Vancouver Opera production of Beethoven's Fidelio -- more on that later this morning.
Presenting the Friday afternoon mini-music-video fest, featuring three of the R2 Blog's favourite fun music videos. No brainy thoughts to be shared about them at the moment, I'll leave the braininess to tomorrow's series, The Nerve (see last post).
Hmm, I wonder what part(s) of the brain interact with sound to make one decide just to listen (or in this case watch and listen) without expending any analytical energy? Don't know, but they should kick in upon viewing the following.
Rationale: Because everyone needs to see these sleeves. (Music's fabulous too.):
In the past few years everyone's been all over the brain. And why not, there's much still-being-charted territory. Consequently the growing body of knowledge about how music works so deeply into us bipods has led to an excitable burst of explaining and theorizing.
Tapping into that zeitgeist is a new series brought to you by the award winning team who produced The Wire (the radio show, not tales of McNulty et al). The new series is called The Nerve: Music And The Human Experience, and it begins tomorrow on Inside The Music Saturday Edition (12:00 p.m., 1:00 AT, 1:30 NT), presented by Nightstream host, Jowi Taylor. (It's also heard on Radio 1 on Sunday night at 8 p.m., in fact each of its six episodes will air Saturdays on R2 and Sundays on R1.)
Episode one is called Wired for Sound (Music & the Brain). In it you'll hear about the creation of sound as it travels through the air to the outer ear, cochlea, etc. But it's not just about the mechanics of sound -- it's also an exploration of how and why hearing evolved, and how the human ear is designed to react to certain sounds.
So you can hear about why the brain translates some sounds as music and others as noise, what the relationship is between anticipation and satisfaction in music, and how rhythm, harmony, melody and timbre play in that dance with the brain.
The weekend draws nigh, and as part of the launch of three new shows you can hear Molly Johnson hosting the weekend edition of Radio 2 Morning starting Saturday morning.
But today is another weekday, Miss Scarlett, and on it you will hear Tom Allen with Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.), Julie Nesrallah with Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.) and Rich Terfry with Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.).
Did you know that these shows all have their own show blogs? Still in the early stages, as are the programmes themselves, but if you'd like to have a boo, just click on those show links.
According to one report, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said, "The Gershwin Prize was created to honor an artist whose creative output transcends distinctions between musical styles and idioms, bringing diverse listeners together, and fostering mutual understanding and appreciation." He also said that "Stevie Wonder's music epitomizes this ideal."
So in this case a good song is at least in part about fostering cultural understanding -- fairly specific, really. (And funnily enough not something the Gershwins were so big on -- unless you think espousing having rhythm is one way of fostering cultural understanding.)
But the awarding of this prize made me -- and perhaps will make you -- start thinking anew about what makes a good popular song. Particularly in light of the new programming on CBC R2 -- with a show like Radio 2 Drive, which is really about songs and songwriters. What makes a good song? How do you decide? Why is it that what is "dreck" to one person is gold to another?
While three new show premiered this week with four new hosts (don't forget Molly Johnson on the weekend!) one of those hosts, the host of the weekday edition of Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) probably needs little introduction. He has, I think, attained a status rarely conferred upon any individual -- he is a CBC Personality. Possibly even a National Treasure! (We won't hold this against him though.)
But it is still conceivable that there is someone reading this who knows nothing about Tom, or that someone who does might enjoy a few lighthearted words from Mr. Allen anyway, thus this little Q&A. (By the way, I was so glad he did not deny the veracity of question # 5, as I have an eye witness to the event, a.k.a. the R2 Blogger...)
1. Three words that describe your new show?
Bright, up, and fresh.
2. Three words that describe how you feel when you get up at 4 am to go to work?
Bright, up, and...full of it.
3. The quality you most admire in a radio host?
Honesty and directness.
4. The quality you most admire in a pet?
Character. I can put up with attitude, with noise and with fur all over the place, as long as character prevails.
5. True or False: You ride your bike around the atrium of the Broadcast Centre in the wee small hours.
True. At least, it was true, before CBC Security decided a bicycle is a global threat. It's ridiculous. If they're willing to leave Jowi Taylor in here without supervision in the middle of the night I don't see why I can't bring in my bike.
6. True or False: You once aspired to be a cook in a Mexican restaurant.
False - I didn't aspire to be one. I was one. Chili, soups, fajitas... I did all that. It was the high-end Russian cuisine I aspired to - for six whole weeks. Then the truth was revealed, and I had to find another way to pay the rent.
7. Favourite music to cook burritos to?
Tito Puente, Samba Squad or Tower of Power
8. The trombone versus the mandolin, in under twenty words?
Battle of the century! One night only! Don't miss it! Still plenty of good seats left!
9. Musician you would you most like to meet, dead or alive?
It would have to be someone I think I could actually get along with. I've met famous people, and once you've said "I have all your albums" and they've said "Thanks" there really isn't anything else to it. So: Bach's out - too busy. Beethoven - too moody. Cole Porter - all style and no substance. Richard Rogers - a grump. Bird, Coltrane, Hendrix and Elvis all had other distractions. Ray Charles could be prickly, John Lennon, too. Pete Townsend is deaf. Sting is a corporation. Kurt Cobain - are you crazy? Alright, alright... I'll pick three: Dizzy Gillespie for wit and humour, Steve Reich for intellect and a love of trains, and Tom Waits for the unexpected. Oh, and there had better be a woman around, just to maintain poise. Sapho? Hildegard von Bingen? No, wait! I've got it - Shirley Bassey.
Day three for the new weekday CBC Radio 2 shows, and there's been some good listening on all three. (Nice to hear that great New Pornographers song yesterday, Tom, and I'd have to agree with what you said -- so much better than the Old Pornographers. Heh.)
If you've arrived here by clicking through the admittedly massive CBC website trying to find more info about the shows, this is the skinny: Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.), hosted by Tom Allen, features a mix of contemporary and older tunes -- indie, pop, a little chanson, a little jazz; Julie Nesrallah brings you classical music on Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.), and in the afternoons, Rich Terfry presents songwriters on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.).
As it does represent such a major change in the Radio 2 programming, I would like to suggest that if you want to express your opinions beyond the format of the blog, you may want to do so via CONTACT US.
As to today -- here are your daily programming highlights on the New Radio 2:
Now to the topic du jour -- here's the broad hint:
It has a ritual to it. Gently shake it out of the jacket, holding by edge and label only. Tenderly clean. Carefully lower the arm. Hope your hand does not shake. Lean back, and listen. Welcome to the 21st century.
The other day I heard Rich Terfry, host of Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.), describe his new show (I'm paraphrasing here) as "the house that Joni, Leonard and Neil built," the place where "younger singers come to worship." Simple but eloquent -- and it should tell you something about the man behind Drive.
But not enough! No indeed -- we have questions, ten of which are below. Fortunately Rich also has answers, and here they are -- thanks Rich.
1. How far have you climbed to listen to a radio?
I've climbed to the top of the tallest tree in Mt. Uniacke (my home town)!! I needed to be able to listen to the college station in the distant city. It was really high up. I had my eyes closed.
2. What delights you most about Radio 2 Drive?
I'm hearing a lot of great music I didn't know before. It's impossible to know it all, but I'm getting closer. Yesterday I heard a Beatles cover by the Cowboy Junkies I hadn't heard before and it was amazing. Even sinister!
3. You’ve been called Buck 65, DJ Critical and “the new Tom Waits.” Why not stick with one of these?
I guess I'm a compartmentalizer. It helps me think. Does that make sense?
4. Three words that describe the essence of the music "Drive" will play?
Visual, warm, thoughtful.
5. Three words that describe the essence of getting ready to host daily national radio?
Terrifying, fun, revealing.
6. True or False: You were once scouted by A. The Lansing Lugnuts B. The New York Yankees C. The Mount Uniacke Unicorns
The Yankees! It's true. But my body is wrecked now. I threw a few balls down at the Exhibition over the weekend and was in pain for the next three days. Sad.
7. Quality you most admire in a baseball player?
I admire lots of different qualities, but I guess that "clutch" is tops. Being clutch - coming through when the game is on the line. Some baseball scholars say there's no such thing, but I believe in it.
8. Quality you most admire in a musician?
Humility.
9. Obscure talent you’ve yet to "share with the class?"
The new weekday CBC Radio 2 shows have launched, and Dylan CD refusing to track properly aside, (right, Tom?) things got off to a great start. Lovely to hear Julie sounding so at home on Tempo, first day as a radio host, ditto Rich on Radio 2 Drive. (Although Rich has pitched before for campus radio -- we won't say minor leagues, no, not those of us who also came up through community radio.)
And for R2 newcomers or oldcomers curious about the new weekday shows, here is the nutshell: Tom Allen hosts Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.), featuring a mix of contemporary artists and familiar favourites in a mix of genres; Julie Nesrallah brings you classical music on Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.), and in the afternoons, Rich Terfry presents songwriters on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.).
The hosts and producers are proud of their new programmes, but of course also understand that the change in music programming is not to everyone's taste. Please do click on CONTACT US to further express your opinions, should you be so moved.
Meantime, here are some of the programming highlights today on the new Radio 2:
We all have varying amounts of computer techi-ness, or, as my colleague Peter Cook (a.k.a. The BBF, The Blog's Best Friend) puts it, geekyness.
He has a lot. I have, well, less. Maybe you have even less still. In which case you'll be happy to see this new weekly feature called Tech Q's? where your technical questions (and mine) will be answered.
Today, not a question though, just an answer! Peter kindly walks us through how to listen to R2's new internet radio channels, which include classical, Canadian composers, Canadian songwriters, and jazz.
Over to Dr. Peter:
"Audio on the internet used to be a minor miracle . . . but a really lousy sounding one. Especially for music! Often it still does sound bad. But not when it's coming from CBC Radio 2.
Today we launched our new new Internet Radio Channels and we're pretty proud of the sound quality.
We know that listening to music from the internet is new for some people. And we know that some of you are frustrated by the limitations of the sound coming from your computer speakers.
So we've created some "How to" files to help you make your way.
There are lots of illustrations and step by step instructions.
Click on the links above and your computer will either open the files directly or ask you where you'd like to save them. You can even print them up for future reference if you like. (These are "pdf" files. They can be opened with software you probably already have on your computer.)
For future reference, these files are right at the top of our Help page. There is a Help link in the left-hand navigation menu of the CBC Radio 2 site.
One more note -- the Player requires Flash 8 or better (which is most likely already installed on your computer) and a high speed internet connection..."
Thanks, Peter.
Please check back next Tuesday when Peter will go over another tech issue on Tech Q? here on the Radio 2 Blog -- and, please feel free to send your questions in via comments.
Today Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.), Julie Nesrallah's new classical music show, has its much anticipated debut. So we at the Radio 2 Blog (actually there is no "we," a few supportive colleagues aside, but it allows me to fantasize that I have minions, and who wouldn't want minions?) thought it timely to have a virtual get-to-know Julie. For those who don't know, Ms. Nesrallah is a very accomplished singer as well, which will explain some of her responses.
So without further ado, here's Julie!
Ten Questions for Julie:
1. Most exciting thing about launching Tempo?
The most exciting thing about launching Tempo, after weeks of pretend shows, will be having a live audience on the other side!
2. What's more nerve-wracking: A. First week of school, B. Opening night of an opera, C. Starting a radio show.
I always loved the first week of school; the opening night of an opera is exciting but not nerve-wracking because I've been doing it a long time; starting a radio show is pretty nerve-wracking! It's an arena that is very new for me. But I am up to the challenge and the performer in me is thrilled to get on the air.
3. What quality do you most admire in a performer?
I admire a performer who is engaging in an honest and genuine way; performers who truly show you what they love to do.
4. What quality do you most admire in an audience?
I admire an audience that surrenders itself and joins you for the ride -- and turns off their cell phones.
5. True or False: You have a fabulous tabouleh recipe.
TRUE. I make a mean tabouleh. They don't call me "Julie Tabouleh" for nothing.
6. Favourite music to make tabouleh to?
I'd have to say Beethoven -- it makes me chop the parsley faster.
7. What would you most like to ask the composer?
I'd invite Beethoven out on a date and then ask him about everything -- his life, his music, his mother, relationships -- everything that makes Beethoven tick. That would be the ultimate insight into the man and his music.
8. Stage vs. the radio studio -- thoughts?
I am, by nature, a creative person and performer, and stage and radio allow me to tap into many different aspects of my artistic temperament. Ultimately, I am most interested in making a connection with people in an honest and down to earth way.
9. Big hair: friend or foe?
Big hair is definitely my friend. If I'm in a crowded room and someone needs to find me, or if I'm meeting someone for the first time, I always say, "Look for the big hair!" or "I'm the one with the big hair!"
10. Mantra for the new radio season?
Exalt the everyday with classical music that rocks your world.
Rightfully this post should be accompanied by audio, say a fanfare, as it is the first day of the new Radio 2. The new show hosts are psyched, the producers are working flat-out, and everyone is very proud to offer you three new programmes, hosted by four talented broadcasters -- all of whom are also musicians.
Out of the early morning gate, (he's used to it!) Tom Allen brings you Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.), featuring a mix of contemporary artists and familiar favourites in a mix of genres. Next it's Julie Nesrallah with the all-classical show, Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.), and in the afternoons, Rich Terfry focuses on the song and the songwriter, on Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.). In case you'd like more info, here is a bit more detail on the new shows.
The weekend edition of Radio 2 Morning will be hosted by Molly Johnson, and fans of Jurgen Gothe (I know you are legion,) do tune into his new show, Farrago With Jurgen Gothe (Sundays 5 p.m.) Longtime CBC host Peter Togni begins presenting Choral Concert (Sunday 8:00 a.m.) on the weekend as well.
I'd be remiss not to mention that two other shows have already launched, this past spring -- Tom Powers folk/roots show, Deep Roots (Saturday 11:00 a.m., 12:00 AT), and Katherine Duncan's classical music news show, In Tune (Saturday 5:00 p.m.)
There's no question that these changes represent a huge shift in direction for the Radio 2 network. Most listeners to prime time Radio 2 are accustomed to hearing classical music throughout the broadcast day. Broadening the range to include other styles of music is obviously not to everyone's taste -- and if you wish to express your feelings about that, please go to: CONTACT US. But even if you do count yourself in that number, hopefully you may find something that you do like in the new programming -- there will be lots of excellent music.
You may also be interested in the CBC's new internet radio channels, including CBC Classical (home to classical music from across the centuries, uninterrupted 24 hours a day), which you can find right here on the Radio 2 website at New Radio 2 Channels, and via iTunes --under "radio" and then "classical." There are three other new internet channels launching today too: Canadian Composers, Canadian Songwriters, and CBC Jazz. Here's where you can find out more about how to listen to the online channels.
And stay tuned to the R2 Blog today -- coming up, a Q&A with the lovely and talented Tempo host, Ms.Julie Nesrallah.
Tom Allen and Rich Terfry, hosts of two of the new weekday shows, Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) and Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.) respectively, (both launch tomorrow), join Laurie Brown tonight on The Signal (10 p.m.). They'll chat a bit about their shows, play some music, possibly swap notes with Laurie about the thrills and terrors challenges of starting up new daily radio shows...but seriously, I'm sure they're totally excited about the prospect.
Rich will talk with Laurie about playing music with Tanya Tagaq, btw, which I can only imagine would be one of the more intense experiences a musician could ever have, having seen her perform not long ago with the Kronos Quartet. (Parts of that performance were truly electrifying.)
And before I let you go, as it were, some other music I'd like to draw your attention to on this evening's broadcast -- Inner Cities (No.'s 6 and 7) by composer Alvin Curran, performed by pianist Eve Egoyan. (Curran's writing on all of his Inner Cities makes for a great read, fyi.)
When the day eases into evening Katie will be playing jazz, a little funk, some R&B...on Tonic (6 p.m.), with music from Diana Krall, Cannonball Adderley, Earth, Wind & Fire, guitarist John Stein, singer Dione Taylor, and organist Jimmy Smith among others.
Speaking of Jimmy Smith, here's an oddity that is just too much to pass on -- an excerpt from a movie called Get Yourself A College Girl, where Smith plays to a "college crowd" -- a jazz version of When Johnny Comes Marching Home of all things. Note the hat at around 2:00 into the video -- subtle.
Somehow I've managed never to see, let alone hear of this 1964 movie before, but I can tell you I will be renting it at the earliest possible opportunity...too camp for words. Or as one viewer put it on the aforelinked IMDB site, it's one of the "truly fabulous awful movies of all time."
Jimmy Smith, on the other hand, really was a truly fabulous organ player, which is why Katie will be playing some of his music tonight on Tonic (6 p.m.).
Happy Labour Day. It hardly seems possible that summer is over, the Canadian summer is always a blink of an eye, isn't it. Not that I really mind. Sorry, summer advocates, but there's something wonderful about cooler days and autumn leaves. (You know the ones, they drift by your window, the autumn leaves of red and gold?) Not to mention real autumn apples! No more summer mushiness.
But regardless of where you stand re: summer vs. autumn, there's no question that Labour Day represents the eve of change, the new school year, the new radio season too. And this year that means some very big changes at Radio 2, with three new shows on the new daytime schedule launching tomorrow: Tom Allen's Radio 2 Morning (6 a.m.-10 a.m.), Julie Nesrallah's Tempo (10 a.m. - 3 p.m.), and Rich Terfry's Radio 2 Drive (3 p.m.-6 p.m.). Radio 2 Morning will also be heard on weekends with host Molly Johnson.
The blog will look a little different tomorrow too -- a handy dandy early morning post will tell you what's coming up each day, something some of you have suggested would be helpful.
But as to the programming today. Since it is a holiday you will not hear the programming you are used to, nor will you hear the debut of the new shows. What you will hear is a mix of the kinds of music you'll be hearing once the new shows launch.
Also, the new show hosts are not on air today, (holiday host Jeremy Harris will pop in every now and then), they're busy looking over their playlists, doing vocal exercises, practicing their intros...or maybe just drinking coffee and catching up on back issues of the New Yorker...I can't say for sure. But I can say they'll be in the host chairs tomorrow, eager and ready to play music for you. Now, here's the scoop on the programming today:
TODAY'S RADIO 2 HOLIDAY PROGRAMMING
6-10am: Singer-songwriters, world music, indie, blues -- from musicians like Bruce Cockburn, Ron Sexsmith, Van Morrison, Jamie Lidell, Alex Cuba, Nina Simone, Chris Whitely -- that should give you some idea of the range.
10am-3pm: All classical music, all Canadian. If it's not a Canadian Composer, then it's a Canadian orchestra, singer or ensemble.
3-6pm: New and older music, from the indie and roots camps, singer-songwriters, mostly Canadian -- including musicians like Matthew Barber, Kathleen Edwards, Basia Bulat, Sam Roberts, and, as they say much, much more.
Note: Tonic (6 p.m.), Canada Live (8 p.m.) and The Signal (10 p.m.) will be heard today as per usual -- for Canada Live info, please scroll down to the previous post.
Hope that you enjoy the holiday mix, and if you're interested in hearing more that you tune in tomorrow, Tuesday, September 2, for the new Radio 2.
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars (subject of the movie, Refugee All Stars) are one of a number of really excellent African bands to come out of extremely difficult conditions. In their case, as you will have guessed, a refugee camp. Band members met in a camp in Guinea, after fleeing Freetown when it was attacked by rebel forces. For a full account of their story, go here.
But to hear them you can tune in Monday night to Canada Live (8 p.m.) for a live recording of the band made at the Banff Centre. (Or listen online, Concerts On Demand: Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.) It's great, uplifting music, a mix of highlife, soukous and reggae.
"Is rap poised to initiate a pan-African renaissance? Is music journalism just an industry mouthpiece? Is genre determined by social, not sonic, factors?"
There's got to be a morning after, and it is here, post-
There was a time when the TV theme song ruled. Probably at around the same time as the TV show when watched in real time ruled. 
Well, before you know before what, the guy with the scythe. 
Over on 
As noted earlier, tonight there is a special live broadcast of 
Ah, Doctor Peter is in. This week, he offers some reassurance to those suffering from Podcast phobia. But first -- a note on other matters on the technical front. 
Every day there are news stories about music -- and a good place to turn to for your classical music news is In Tune (Saturday 5:00 p.m., 5:30 NT). But there are also music stories that are less newsworthy, and more about ideas. They tend to require more reading, more reflection and more, well, time. Which means that sometimes, in the daily dailyness of life, they get pushed to the back burner. You know the scenario, so much to read, so little time. 
This weekend Canadian Afrobeat band 
As regular Radio 2 Blog readers know, as well as being a modest Leonard Cohen appreciation society, (see last post), there's also a fondness for the odd baseball reference on the blog from time to time. 
Say what you like about the blogosphere (go ahead, say it), but one thing you can say without meeting much opposition, I should think, is that it is simultaneously extraordinarily dull and extraordinarily amusing. Much of the dullness vs. amusing lies in individual taste. 
Thanks to 
One of baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau's epitaphs is said to have read, "Here lies the god of harmony." (He was also born in Dijon, which is neither here nor there really, except for us mustard-lovers it's a nice Rameau factoid, if not as weighty as the epitaph.) Anyway, Rameau is also credited with some of the most graceful and lovely dance music ever written, and a quick study, too -- most accounts suggest his Pygmalion was written in eight days! 
If you've ever played in a band, sung in a choir, or maybe just hung out with other human beings, you will know that while generosity and kindness abound, it is also our nature to be competitive, ambitious, and, perhaps more than anything else...to complain. We like what we like, we don't what we don't. This can cause conflict.
Few things got the music & evolution theorists' knickers more knotted than when 
Here's a new twist in the ongoing saga of bands trying to find clever ways of releasing their music that will ultimately benefit them: let your fans have the music, but only if they'll play it themselves. 
Every day on the R2 blog you can expect info on the day's programming, (
"It's important never to allow yourself to think you know the answer because this does not serve the composer or the music."
We're entering into uni-nicknamed music awards time, tonight being Britian's big 
Dr. Peter is in the house again, with our new weekly feature, Tech Q's?, posted Tuesdays. We ask our tech questions relating to Radio 2, Peter answers. After answering any number of questions in 
"I believe everything can be communicated through music."
It's always interesting to see how classical music is used in popular culture -- for example to inject a certain gravitas to a scene in an otherwise non-gravitas movie, or maybe to imply something about class or social standing. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but music? Well, as we used to say when we were kids, it does that an "infinity number of times."
Yesterday 
If you're a newcomer to the CBC Radio 2 Blog, here's the scoop on what it's all about, in its September 2008 incarnation. 
We all have varying amounts of computer techi-ness, or, as my colleague Peter Cook (a.k.a. The BBF, The Blog's Best Friend) puts it, geekyness.
Rightfully this post should be accompanied by audio, say a fanfare, as it is the first day of the 
Happy Labour Day. It hardly seems possible that summer is over, the Canadian summer is always a blink of an eye, isn't it. Not that I really mind. Sorry, summer advocates, but there's something wonderful about cooler days and autumn leaves. (You know the ones, they drift by your window, the autumn leaves of red and gold?) Not to mention real autumn apples! No more summer mushiness.
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