Marginal Revolution

The meta-lists, this time for classical music

The end of the year is coming and so I will digest the numerous "best of" lists for you once again.  These picks are for classical music CDs and they are from Fanfare, the number one source of criticism for new classical releases.  Here are the CDs that appeared more than once on their reviewers' "best of the year" lists:

Vincent Persichetti: Piano Sonatas; knotty American piano music.

Morton Feldman: The Viola in My Life, I-IV.

Alkan Organ Works, vol.II, by Kevin Bowyer

Bach, Brandenburg Concerti, rerecorded by Trevor Pinnock.

Brahms, Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano, by Manasse and Nakamatsu.

Thomas Simaku, String Quartets; intense, from Albania.

As usual, classical "best of" lists give disproportionate weight to material which had not previously been recorded, in this case the Persichetti which of all the entries is named the most often.  The Brahms is the one most likely to please you, or the Pinnock.  I can vouch for the quality of the others but when it comes to genre they won't convert the unpersuaded.

The story of Gary Gorton and AIG

Recommended.  I didn't know he was such a collector of jazz LPs.

China wailing market of the day, a continuing series

I entered the mourning profession at the age of twelve.  My teacher forced me to practice the basic suona tunes, as well as to learn how to wail and chant.  Having a solid foundation in the basics enables a performer to improvise with ease, and to produce an earth-shattering effect.  Our wailing sounds more authentic than that of the children or relatives of the deceased.

Most people who have lost their family members burst into tears and begin wailing upon seeing the body of the deceased.  But their wailing doesn't last.  Soon they are overcome with grief.  When grief reaches into their hearts, they either suffer from shock or pass out.  But for us, once we get into the mood, we control our emotions and improvise with great ease.  We can wail as long as is requested.  If it's a grand funeral and the money is good, we do lots of improvisation to please the host.

"How long can you wail?  What was your record?"

Two days and two nights...Voices are our capital and we know how to protect them...

...Frankly speaking, the hired mourners are the ones who can stick to the very end.

That is from Liao Yiwu's excellent The Corpse Walker: Real-Life Stories, China from the Bottom Up.  Here is a previous installment in the series.  Here is an out of date book, by comedian Eddie Cantor.  Here is a photo:

The roots of Beatlemania -- egomania?

The Beatles even cultivated this sort of personal connection to their audience.  In their early songs, Paul McCartney says, he and John intentionally -- somewhat calculatingly -- tried to inject personal pronouns into as many of the early lyrics as they could.  They took seriously the task of forging a relationship with their fans in a very personal way.  "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "P.S. I Love You," "Love Me Do," "Please Please Me," "From Me to You."

Don't forget "And I Love Her," among a bunch of others.  And by egomania I am referring to the audience not (only) the performers.  This passage is from Daniel J. Levitin's new and quite interesting The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature.

Markets in everything

Or will there be?

Robert Burns's poetry might have been dismissed as "sentimental doggerel" by Jeremy Paxman but that hasn't stopped diminutive I'm A Celebrity contestant David Gest and pop legend Michael Jackson from recording an album of the much-loved Scottish poet's work. Gest's spokesman said the album is a modern musical take on some of Burns' classic poems, and had been a long cherished project.

Here is the full story.  Here is the evolution of earnings on some of MJ's other albums.  Here is a man who just died.

Which body parts are sung about the most?

The eyes.  Other results vary across genre, for instance gospel and blues sing more about hands than eyes.  And get this:

As for the genre that talks about body parts the most, hip hop takes the honors with more references than any other genre. Meanwhile, gospel refers to the body the least. There are plenty of other data points to peruse. It's nice to know that 23.64 percent of hip hop songs refer to the behind, while 11.83 percent of rock songs talk about eyes.

Here is a summary of the results:

Topsy-Turvy

Economists who secretly want to be rock stars and rock stars who secretly want to be economists.

Hillel's new MR-based song about publishing

Remember the guy who wrote the song about trying to survive in 1000 A.D.?  He has a new and excellent tune, based on your comments about books having so much chaff and extra material in them.  Here is the link to the MP3 (and other songs by him).  Here are the lyrics.

Why isn't Asian music more popular?

Going back to some old requests, Eric H., a loyal and perceptive MR reader and commentator, asks:

Why do the US (a wealthy country) and Africa (a poor continent) put out more influential modern music than Asia (a populated continent of both wealthy and poor extremes)?

Where do I start?

1. Most African music has scales very similar to those of European music and thus we are arguably considering a unified and indeed accessible style.

2. Many African musics emphasize rhythms and rhythm is arguably the most universal element of music and thus it is relatively easy to export.  American music has in this regard a strong African component, for obvious historical reasons.

3. The micro-tonal musics, as we find in India and the Middle East, don't spread to many countries which do not already have a micro-tonal tradition.  Cats wailing, etc., though it is a shame if you haven't trained your ear by now to like the stuff.  It's some of the world's finest music.

4. Many Asian musics, such as some of the major styles of China and Japan, emphasize timbre.  That makes them a) often too subtle, and b) very hard to translate to disc or to radio.  African-derived musics are perfect for radio or for the car.

5. African music is really, really good.  And America is really, really good at entertaining people.  It's an unstoppable alliance.

Are books overwritten?

...having said that, spending a lot of time on the internet, as I have since 2002, has rubbed my nose in something that hadn't really bothered me before then: namely just how overwritten so many books and magazine articles are. Seymour Hersh? He's great. You could also cut every one of his pieces by at least 50% and lose exactly nothing. And I'm not picking on Hersh. At a guess, I'd say that two-thirds of the magazine pieces I read could be sliced by nearly a third or more without losing much. That's true of a lot of books too.

Here is the full piece, by Kevin Drum.  My view is that many readers want overwritten books to tranquillize themselves, just as they enjoy dull, soothing voices on the radio.

Readers, do you agree that most books are overwritten?  Please write your opinion of Kevin Drum's point in the comments and feel free to refer to specific books.  My favorite rock star, the extraordinary Hillel, would like to again create a song from your opinions.  I will link to the song once it is ready.  Hillel assures me that the quality of his song will reflect the quality of your input.  Be poetic!  Think music!  Overwrite, if you wish!

Tyler Cowen lecturing on globalization and music

This Georgetown talk is now on-line; the entire talk is structured around commentary on the economics behind particular musical tracks, including Desmond Dekker, Tarika, some doo-wop, and other favorites of mine.

My five guiltiest iTunes pleasures

I have been tagged.  They're probably all songs by Gilbert O'Sullivan but if you wish to diversify, well...should I feel guilty about Split Enz "I Hope I Never," Harry Nilsson's "Cuddly Toy," early Beach Boys songs, or Liz Phair's "Whip-Smart"?  How about "Wooly Bully", by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs?  Is Paul Simon's "American Tune" noble or too sappy?  Upon reflection I don't feel guilty about any of it.  I haven't felt guilty about Abba for a long time though Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan may soon change that.

Hit songs are getting wordier

Average word count of top-ten songs during the 1960s: 176

Average last year: 436

That is from Harper's Index, August issue.  I don't think it can be a pure length of song effect.

Markets in everything, cultural diplomacy edition

In Paraguay the latest hit record -- and yes it is a hit -- is by the U.S. Ambassador singing Paraguayan folk songs in the language of Guarani.  Crowds love it, though one Paraguayan critic compared it to "the monotone of a tired bird."  The ambassador had no previous professional singing experience.  One Paraguayan Senator is asking his Congress to denounce the diplomat.  "Paraguayans cry when they hear it" is another, more laudatory assessment.  Here is the interesting story.

Here is a speech by the ambassador, excerpt:

We are not building a military base………  We are not stealing the Guarani aquifer………….  We are not buying up the Chaco…………….

The truth is that our agenda is very positive, both for the region and for Paraguay.

Obama's iPod

Thank you all for your contributions, here is my new insight into Obama, it won't be new for long:

Obama said that, growing up, he listened to Elton John and Earth, Wind & Fire but that Stevie Wonder was his ultimate musical hero during the 70s. The Stones' track Gimme Shelter topped his favourite songs from the band. His selection also contained 30 songs from Dylan. "One of my favourites [for] the political season is [Dylan's] Maggie's Farm. It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric."

...The jazz legends Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker were also included...

The worship of Dylan and Wonder and be-bop jazz is consistent with my view of him as a detached, universalist cosmopolitan.

My favorite song

Ever, with explanation and the MP3 link on the left.  And here are the lyrics.

Addendum: The guy actually has the best practical idea I've heard yet for your time travel trip back to 1000 A.D.  If you have a decent voice, use the catalog of the Beatles and others to become the greatest minstrel the world has seen.  It's the low capital costs and low cooperation requirements that make the idea so appealing.

Focal points

He [Glenn Gould] disliked giving autographs for the same reason he was wary of writing checks for fear the results might be unlucky.  But when he did give an autograph or sign a check (or any other document, for that matter), he always misspelled his own first name writing it as "Glen."  Kazdin once asked him why, and Gould explained that he had discovered years earlier that once he got his hand to start forming the two n's he couldn't stop and would keep going and write three, so he decided to abort the exercise after one.  Kazdin was skeptical.  "This supposed lack of manual control is a little hard to swallow coming from the man who could play an unbroken stream of thirty-second notes faster and cleaner than any other pianist on the face of the earth."

That is from A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano, by Katie Hafner.  This is an excellent book showing that the choice of piano really matters.  For the pointer I thank Kat.

Reader request for recent jazz CDs

Out here in Japan I am going through some of the old requests; here is one:

Recommendations re new jazz recordings

I have a few:

1. Anything by Brad Mehldau; he is a very subtle pianist, broadly in the mold of Bill Evans.  Start with his CD with Pat Metheny.

2. Saudades, by Trio Beyond.  Excellent guitar work on every cut; bluesy, lots of organ.

3. Pakistani Pomade, by Alexander von Schlippenbach; the sort of jazz that hurts most people's ears.

4. Ramasuri, by Max Nagl.  An exhilarating blast, with strong overtones of Klezmer.

Those are my favorites from the last two years or so.  What do you all recommend?

What your funeral music says about you

Here's an interesting article about the Brits, many of whom prefer "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," the Monty Python song, for their funerals.  My probably unrealistic (and not morally binding) vision of my funeral is to forbid any tributes or even spoken words but make everyone sit through Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem (Kempe or Klemperer versions, about 79 minutes long) and then simply close the event and send everybody home.

Whether this is an aesthetic preference, or whether I don't want to let them talk themselves out of weeping over my death, I am not sure.

My favorite things Japan, classical music edition

1. Piano: Mitsuko Uchida is a clear first choice.  Her box of the Mozart sonatas remains the best.  Oddly I don't like her much in the rest of the classical repertoire, though her Debussy and Webern and Schoenberg are interesting (though not my preferred versions for the latter two, which are the steelier Pollini and Gould).  I also like Aki Takahashi, most of all for Cage and Feldman.

2. Conductor: Seiji Ozawa has remarkable talent and he can conduct almost anything without a score (not easy).  Still, he never really developed his own sound and he has to count as a missed opportunity.  First prize goes to Maasaki Suzuki, who has recorded a remarkable all-Japanese St. Matthew's Passion and is doing a cycle of the Bach cantatas.

3. String Quartet: Tokyo is first-rate, get their complete box of Beethoven's String Quartets.

4. Composer: Toru Takemitsu is the obvious choice, though I don't much come back to his work.

5. Classical guitarist: Kazuhito Yamashita.  His transcriptions are mind-blowing, most of all the Stravinsky.  The fascination of the Japanese with transcriptions could command an entire book.

Outside of classical music I'll recommend Kodo (and indeed all Taiko music, but only live, not on disc), The Brilliant Green's "The Angel Song," and yes Yoko Ono.  Most of Japanese popular music is a blur to me, though not an unpleasant one.

Thousand Mile Song

Roger Payne loved those 1960s songs so much he lamented their passing: "Today's humpback whale songs pale beside those of the sixties," he recently wrote in an open letter to the youth of Japan.  "The North Atlantic is so musically lackluster today."  I don't think Paul Knapp would agree.  Today, there might be more beats, maybe fewer legato passages.  We may like the beat more than melody today, and it might be the same with the whales.

The subtitle of this excellent book is Whale Music in a Sea of Sound and it is by David Rothenberg.  Here is David's previous excellent book, Why Birds Sing.

The 100 best jazz albums?

Here is a list by David Remnick, via Jason Kottke.  It is good, albeit a bit mainstream for my tastes.  I'm glad to see he likes Ascension.  I would add more late Miles Davis (Live at Fillmore and In a Silent Way, among others), Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, more Cecil Taylor, the Blakey/Monk album, Solo Monk (my favorite jazz album?), and some Stan Kenton as well.  I'm due to cover a reader request for contemporary jazz soon, so I'll leave the moderns out of it for the time being.

Rappers on *The Economist* magazine

"The style in which they write is simple and concise, how do they get their sentences so precise?" the rappers wonder.

And the chorus is a gem, too: "He reads the Economist so he can get the gist, its solid competence gives him confidence that his intelligence is correct."

The rappers also weigh in on accusations that the Economist pushes a particular line: "Yes, they have a bias; it's pro-democratic. And pro-free trade; they are very emphatic."

The source is Chris Blattman.

What is the best country music?

That is a request from Bill Russell, a loyal MR reader, and yes I will get soon to more of your requests.  I'm no expert, but my picks are as follows:

1. Hank Williams Sr., get both discs and don't look back.

2. The Byrds, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, The Flying Burrito Brothers (the first two albums), plus Gram Parsons's Grievous Angel.

George Jones and Bob Willis and Merle Haggard are all in my view somewhat overrated.

3. Louvin Brothers, Tragic Songs of Life (some call it bluegrass), Dolly Parton, Dock Boggs, Patsy Cline, the essential Johnny Cash (there's lots of it), and the country/gospel of Elvis Presley.  Dylan's country music is good but is not his strongest suit.

Arguably the best songs of Ryan Adams (alas they are scattered but "Amy" and "La Cienega Just Smiled" are two places to start; does anyone know a more general sourcing?) are as good as anything in the genre.  I like Lucinda Williams as well plus Shelby Lynne, most of all I Am Shelby Lynne.

Alternatively, the best collections from the 20s and 30s are mind-blowingly good; for instance try American Primitive on John Fahey's Revenant label, or the Harry Smith collections.  That's some of the best American music period though in some ways the blues shouts are closer to rock and roll than to country.

I might add the whole list comes from someone who was initially allergic to country music, so if that is you give some of these recommendations a try.  Just think of it as White Man's Blues.

India fact of the day

Ratio of the estimated number of fake doctors practicing in Delhi, India, to the number of real ones: 1:1

That is from Harper's Index, May 2008.

Russ Roberts asks about Beethoven's slow movements

I was giving a talk and I referred to Beethoven's slow movements as some of the most splendid creations of humankind.  Russ asked me for a list, so I'll nominate the following:

1. The Emperor Concerto.  This warhorse is a much underrated piece of music, especially the slow movement.  The best recording, and indeed one of the best classical recordings of all time, is Michelangeli-Celibidache.

2. Beethoven's 9th.  You could try the recordings by Abbado, Barenboim, or Klemperer, among others, for sublime takes on the slow movement.

3. The Late String Quartets, most of all Op.132 but indeed all of them.  The slow movements are done best by Quartetto Italiano or the Busch Quartet, noting that the latter has inferior sound quality.

4. Hammerklavier Piano Sonata.  Schnabel's take on the slow movement is the most profound, but his outer movements are a mess.  Gilels or Pollini are safer.  The box of late piano sonatas by Solomon covers the slow movements beautifully as well; when push comes to shove that is my pick.

Richter-Rostropovich are the choice for the slow movements in the cello sonatas.  And don't forget Ivan Moravec playing the slow movement in the Appassionata.

All you can eat?

Allegedly tipped off by senior officials close to the matter, the Financial Times suggests that Apple is in talks with music labels to follow an approach first pioneered by Nokia and Universal Music Group.

Dubbed Comes With Music, the upcoming service has customers pay more for a cellphone in return for as many a la carte music downloads as the customer likes over the course of a year. In this implementation, customers can either renew a subscription once it expires or else keep the tracks they've downloaded, even if they switch to competing phones or music services.

Here is the article.  One point is that songs will get shorter and their best riffs will be held to higher standards of immediate accessibility.  If the marginal cost of a song is free, people will sample lots more and they will give fewer songs a second listen (higher opportunity cost); of course the opening bits of a song are already free in many cases but this will make sampling even easier.

Second, this will redistribute more of the market surplus away from song providers and toward hardware providers.  Say everyone bought the "all you can eat" version and Apple received zero revenue per song (there are few songs that will swing a decision to subscribe or not).  TAddendumhat helps Apple in its bargains with individual song providers.  If you have a hit song, and Apple controls iTunes, there's an element of bilateral monopoly.  So Apple is better off if it can precommit to not caring whether they have your song or not.  On the music company side, there would be a tendency toward consolidation, and bargaining over catalogs rather than songs, to offset Apple's new bargaining advantage.

What other effects can you think of?

Addendum: Some sources are claiming this is just a rumor.

If the Beatles had sung Stairway to Heaven

It's late and I'm very tired out here in Barcelona.  Here's to silliness.  The pointer is from the ever-excellent Michael Blowhard.

My favorite things Spain, music

I need to do this country in pieces, starting with music:

Classical guitarist: Segovia, starting with his recordings of Bach.  It's not just amazing technique, these are some of the best musical interpretations of Bach by anyone playing any instrument.  They are what I call lifetime choices for one's collection.

Spanish pianist, playing Spanish music: Alicia de Larrocha is the obvious choice.  Her Albeniz and Granados recordings remain unsurpassed. 

Composer: Varese sounds much better live than on disc.  I've seen Amèriques twice and both were experiences to remember; here is a bit on YouTube.  Chailly and Boulez understand the music very well but the sounds and textures and rhythms simply don't all come through if you're not there.  (Addendum: Whoops!  Varese was born in France.)  The number two pick is tough but Rodrigo is underrated by many serious listeners, in part because of his exposure through classical pops.  Try his solo guitar pieces and throughout keep him in mind as a precursor of ambient music.  Tomás Luis de Victoria is an underrated Spanish Renaissance composer.

Cellist: It's hard not to pick Pablo Casals, who had extraordinary depth in his phrasing.  I still feel duty bound to point out that most of his recordings are unlistenable, if only because of the scratching.  The Bach is of historic importance but for actual pleasure his Schubert is your best bet.  Most of all the recording of the String Quintet.

Album about: Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain.  One of my three or four favorite Miles CDs, so an easy pick.  Admittedly the move toward an "acoustic-electric" sound does not appeal to all jazz fans, so this album remains underappreciated.

Opera singer: Lots of riches.  Placido Domingo is a good pick though you could argue for many other names as well.

Popular music:  Help!

Flamenco: I love it in small clubs but not on disc or even in mid-sized university music halls. 

The bottom line: There are plenty of peaks but overall I am struck by the unbalanced nature of the distribution.

Markets in everything: Canine edition

Songs that only dogs can hear:

A Very Silent Night, recorded at a frequency only dogs can hear, was so popular among owners it hit number one at Christmas, but has been receiving mixed responses from listeners.

When they say "number one," they mean "number one in New Zealand."  Thanks to John de Palma for the pointer.

Who are the five best Baroque composers?

Bryan Caplan raises the question, in a post that offers a very good description of my view on the arts and modernity.

My list is Bach, Handel, Purcell, Scarlatti, Rameau, in that order.  What about Vivaldi?  Corelli?  They are next in line for me.  Monteverdi comes in second if you count him as Baroque (I don't).  What are your picks?

And to pursue Bryan's question, who are the five best punk rock bands?  The Clash, The Sex Pistols, early XTC, Iggy Pop, and maybe The Ramones.  Honorable mention goes to The Minutemen, Wire, MC5, Rancid, The Dead Kennedys, and The New York Dolls.  X seems overrated to me, and Patti Smith and Sonic Youth and Velvet Underground I don't quite count as punk, though I like their work and think it is important.  For that matter I wonder if Eugene Chadbourne might count.

I don't agree with Bryan that the fifth best punk rock group is better than the fifth best Baroque composer, but I will say this: Baroque style dominated European music for many decades, whereas most of the best punk was from an unrespected niche genre produced in about a five-year time window.

All of Beethoven for $125

That's right, all of Beethoven, 87 discs.  Buy it here.  I'm not tempted, mostly because I already have multiple favorite versions and I am ultimately a big fusspot who can't stand to hear lesser accounts of the master.  I was happy with the Bach box for $99 but he stands up to second-rate interpretations more readily and I never before owned the complete cantatas.  Still, some of you may find this a quick and cost-effective way to feel a sense of "Beethoven completeness."  But you'll value the discs more if you buy them one at a time, or at least one box at a time.  Start with Quartetto Italiano doing the late string quartets, vol.1 is here.

Mexican economies of scope

Traffickers are drawn to musical acts because they provide an easy platform to launder money. There are other easy options, but none is so culturally prestigious. It is the glamour of the music scene that makes it irresistible to narcotraffickers, said Rolando Coro, a well-known disc jockey at Radio Tremendous in Morelia.

"They show up at the dances, these drug traffickers, and order the expensive whiskey, not just a glass, but the whole bottle," Coro said. "They have pretty women following them around. It's fun for them."

Bands that make deals with drug traffickers get a crucial leg up on the competition. Tzin Tzun, the promoter, can spot them with ease.

Here is the full story, with further information about the recent killings of Mexico's most popular musicians.  I wondered about this:

"Bands start to get popular and sometimes they want to keep more of the money," Tzin Tzun said.

Further meta-list selections for the year

Again, this is me reporting what I think are the consensus picks, not my personal opinions:

1. Best jazz album of the year: Charles Mingus Sextet with the Eric Dolphy, Cornell 1964.  Personally I like this CD very much, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't already know most of the essential Mingus.  Dee Dee Bridgewater, who sings jazz over a kora background from Mali, was another popular selection.  I often find jazz singing too facile but the African mix provides an appropriately meaty counterweight.

2. World music: Tinariwen, Aman Iman: Water Is Life.  They're the desert nomads who were described as the world's greatest rock and roll band by Slate.com.  Runner-up would be Segu Blue, by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba.  Acoustic string music from Mali is in this year, plus there is Bembeya Jazz National, from Guinea.  Here is a very good NPR list of top world music picks.

3. Haitian CD: Erol Josue, Regleman.  A clear winner in this category.

4. Lee Perry collection: Ape-ology.  The best of the best.  Again.  It's funny, but this category has a winner just about every year.  In the Coasian durable goods monopoly game, price is falling rapidly...

Karlheinz Stockhausen has died at 79

Here is one balanced appreciation.  The Wikipedia page is patchy but offers lots.  If you're only going to buy one or two, I say start with Mantra and then move on to Stimmung.  The hard cores should seek out Spiral.  Gesang der Jünglinge is perhaps the most influential and seminal work, or perhaps Hymnen, order them here.  The junk includes the Helicopter Quartet, Tierkreis, anything with an American Indian theme, and most of material from the operas.  Gruppen you probably had to hear live.  Momente has compelling parts but it makes me giggle.  The piano music was good, although for me never a highlight.  It's easy to take potshots at his pretentiousness and stupid politics, but he created more memorable and distinct sound worlds than any other twentieth century composer, except possibly John Cage.  It's hard to imagine music without him.  Miles Davis and the Beatles would agree, and they were pretty smart guys.

Addendum: Here is a YouTube of Kontakte.  Here's a bit of Gruppen.  Here is a bit of Hymnen.  But without real sound or live performance it mostly just sounds stupid.

Erwin Nyiregyhazi

The name is pronounced as it looks.  Born in 1903, he was a child prodigy by five, played in Buckingham Palace by eight, and by age thirteen an entire book was devoted to his talents...

In the 1920s he toured to rave reviews, though he recorded only a few piano rolls.  He played in a dramatic and virtually improvisatory nineteenth century style.  Yet he was shy, introverted, and "constitutionally precise."  Strikingly handsome, he lost his way with women, marrying eight times, frequently visiting prostitutes and also going with men.  "I'm addicted to Liszt, oral **x, and alcohol -- not necessarily in that order," he remarked.  After the War he resurfaced in Los Angeles.  His debilitations prevented him from concertizing, so he sight-read orchestral scores for Hollywood directors, for pay, so they could judge potential soundtracks.  He allied himself with Bela Lugosi (a huge admirer) and, inspired by The Fountainhead, courted Ayn Rand.  He was rediscovered in the late 1970s: "never before had I heard a living pianist who played entirely with that 19th century sense of rhetoric which the old writers had described: the true "Romantic Style," wrote Gregor Benko (TC: a man who knows piano).  "Next to him, Horowitz sounds like he is playing a toy piano," explained another reviewer.

He toured Japan and a few recordings were made, though his technique was unreliable.  We are left with scraps, and there is nothing worthy on CD.  On LP his recording of Liszt's "St. Francis Legend" remains a marvel.  The late Roy Childs -- a Nyiregyhazi worshipper -- used to play me N. on reel-to-reel, taped from private concerts.  His "Funerailles" was unforgettable.  Will these recordings ever be released?

We now have Kevin Bazzana's Lost Genius: The Curious and Tragic Story of an Extraordinary Musical Prodigy; here is a not sufficiently positive NYT review. 

Here is a summary website for the man.  Here is a YouTube video, it is amazing for a few moments toward the end but mostly sloppy.  Here are two more YouTubes, the old clip has a young N. playing Liszt's Liebestraum in the background, the other is another pianist playing one of N's compositions.

The bottom line: Talent is not enough.

Eric Lyon on Radiohead

Eric is an old friend of mine and a first-rate composer of experimental music.  I queried him on the musical importance of Radiohead, and he wrote me the following:

I think Radiohead has everything going for them except their music. Radiohead initially came to my attention after they sampled Paul Lansky's "mild und leise" (an excellent early computer music composition, available on Lansky's website) for their song Idioteque. Paul likes what they did with his sample much more than I do. I find the drum track weak in comparison with DnB practice which was so much further along by the late 90s, and the voice is plaintive, thin, lacking all conviction. Radiohead looks good on paper, a fusion of modern techno-derived computer music techniques with rock music, but in practice, the tunes are uninteresting, and the sound production is unexceptional. Another one of many post-MBV disappointments that understand the ideas but not the spirit of My Bloody Valentine. I don't enjoy criticizing Radiohead because they clearly mean well, and their music is carefully and thoughtfully assembled. But they just don't deliver brilliant musical goods, and I'm somewhat puzzled by their mass success. But I am pleased by it. It's nice to see rock intellectuals getting serious attention. And their recent Internet marketing experiments deserve attention, just for trying something different. But I'd take the Pale Saints' fully realized "The Comforts of Madness" over any Radiohead album, by a very large margin.

MR Readers' poll about Radiohead

How much did you pay?  Just let us know in the comments, and those of you who wouldn't otherwise answer, please answer and help us defeat selection bias at least in part.  Just as the heroic Tim has done (please see the second comment), I'm sure he stands up to terrorists as well.

And it's simple: just cook the cheeseburger in milk, what's so hard about that?  Do note the burnt milk will ruin any good pan you use.  If you'd like to read some Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook is compelling even though it is one of those books which old school feminists feel no man can possibly like.  Just be wary of the date who tells you it is his all-time favorite book.  I've never been persuaded by Lessing's science fiction but some of you will wish to try it.

Me on NPR on Radiohead

Here is the link.  Over the last week I went back and listened to their major works again; I'm not that impressed.  Try Christopher O'Riley's album of piano arrangements, and you will see just how thin and unmemorable their compositions are.  Admittedly not all great music would transfer well to the piano, but the Radiohead "sound" isn't that original either, at least not compared to the frontiers of electronica or for that matter punk.  This morning I put on Boris's Pink; it is hardly my favorite album but it was a welcome relief.

iTunes 20th century classical music playlist

From Alex Ross.  I am eagerly awaiting Ross's The Rest is Noise, due out mid-October; Ross is currently my favorite writer on music.

Pay what you want for the new Radiohead album

Here is the story, but no this model won't much change the music industry.  Yes you really can download this album and "tip" Radiohead as you feel inclined to.  But note that:

1. Radiohead is an indie cult band with extreme loyalties from its partisans and the possibility of attracting more such partisans by seeming "cool."

2. Radiohead peaks high on the charts (#3 for their last release, if I recall...) but I believe they sell the product pretty quickly and don't have a long run at the top.  Again, they'd like to widen their fan base.

3. Radiohead's gambit has reaped enormous publicity, but this won't be the case next time.

4. Many donors will give to a highly visible "cause of the month" (remember the outpouring of support for the tsunami victims?) but they won't necessarily give on a regular basis.

5. Radiohead probably has an especially high ratio of touring to CD and iTunes income; see #1.  This scheme is a natural for them but not for Kelly Clarkson. 

What we will see is lots of lesser bands (and authors) giving their work away for free, but that trend has been underway for some time.  And by the way, Radiohead's best album is Kid A.

Rehashed hash

When blogging I try to keep book rehash to a minimum.  But tonight I cannot resist making a point from Good and Plenty:

In the past most people didn't much like or listen to most of the music they bought, or in any case most of the value came from their very favorites.  A relatively small percentage of our music purchases accounted for most of our listening pleasure.  So if people can sample music in advance, and know in advance what they will like, music sales will plummet.  This will be a sign of market efficiency, not market failure.

Admittedly copyright issues are being superimposed on this scenario at the same time, so the net assessment of current music trends is complex.  But when there is uncertainty about consumer tastes, falling output can be a strong Pareto improvement.  (It's just like how having lots of dates is not necessarily the sign of a happy love life.)  Less music is being produced, but we're getting more of the stuff we want.

Does illegal file-sharing cut into CD sales?

Stan Liebowitz says yes, rebutting the well-known arguments of Koleman Strumpf, published in the Journal of Political Economy.  I would be happy to link to a response by Strumpf.  In the meantime, two notes: a) I suspect non-fair use CD burning is in any case the bigger issue, and b) significantly lower musical sales, and yes sales are falling, still can be welfare-improving.  The real consumption of music seems to be up.

Simone Dinnerstein

Is her Goldberg Variations as good as The New York Times (and other reviews) claims?  In a word, yes.

No, it doesn't displace Gould for me, but it comes closer than I thought any recording ever would.  I'm a Gould-obsessive who resold his Murray Perahia recording of the Goldbergs in disgust and never cottoned to the Goldbergs on harpischord (Egarr and Hantai being truly splendid, however).  Schepkin, Hewitt, Tipo, and Peter Serkin were fine, Pi-hsien Chen was surprisingly good, Schiff wasn't so hot, and then there was Gould, Gould, Gould.  After Gould, I was just as happy to hear the transcribed version for guitar.

Now there is another.

He didn't even mention bottleneck guitar

How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and Why You Should Care), by Ross W. Duffin, is a cranky but fascinating look at how music went astray:

For nearly a century, equal temperament—the practice of dividing an octave into twelve equally proportioned half-steps—has held a virtual monopoly on the way in which instruments are tuned and played. In his new book, Duffin explains how we came to rely exclusively on equal temperament by charting the fascinating evolution of tuning through the ages. Along the way, he challenges the widely held belief that equal temperament is a perfect, "naturally selected" musical system, and proposes a radical reevaluation of how we play and hear music.

You can get Bach's Well-Tempered Klavier played this way, but to my ears it is not a revelation.  Of course unequal temperament (not my preferred terminology) has struck back through popular music, whether it be bent blues notes, pedal steel guitar, and the drone tunings of My Bloody Valentine or Sonic Youth.  Oddly the author doesn't mention this.  Listeners want variety, and simply "pegging the scale" does not control the real sound which results, just as in um...macroeconomics.

Queen fact of the day

Queen guitarist and songwriter Brian May, who gave up studying the stars to become one, will soon complete his doctorate in astrophysics.

May, 60, will submit a thesis titled Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud next week at Imperial College London.

Here is the story.  Thanks to Daniel Klein for the pointer.  It's long been my view that most rock stars are very very smart people.

Addendum: Read Dubner on smart rock stars.

iPod music listening

Carrying around my iPhone, I listen more to an iPod than before and I've upgraded the music collection on my iPod.

I suspect that iPods encourage musical nuggets which are short, to the point, and complementary to adrenalin.  I've heard the ? and the Mysterians song "99 Teardrops" more often in the last week than in the preceding last year.

The iPod means we listen more on the go, and with background noise, so the music should have energy.  iPod listening also brings more frequent interruptions, which discriminates against longer pieces.  Unlike with a CD player there is no particular reason to listen to a whole album straight through and what's an album anymore anyway?

The curmudgeonly side of me worries a little.  What about slowly enfolding, architectonically subtle musical structures?  I love LaMonte Young, Pandit Kumar, and Andrew Violette, but thery're not on my iPod.  I also resent that now my brain is more likely to expect music to be fun, though often I would rather hear music that is good for me.

I've read that classical music is more popular on iTunes than in music stores; I wonder if the preference is for arias and energetic movements of snappy symphonies, or if the iTunes purchase doesn't end up very active on the iPod.

A loyal MR reader asked for mbaqanga recommendations for iPod; start with The Indestructible Beat of Soweto, Mahlathini (best without the Mahotella Queens), and Township Jazz n' Jive; the last is not exactly mbqanga but you will love it anyway.

Nicolai Foss on jazz guitar

My Danish host, Nicolai Foss, has a blog on archtop jazz guitar.  Here are his posts on the best of jazz guitar.  I'll nominate Joe Pass's Virtuoso album, any number of Django Reinhardt collections, the Jim Hall-Sonny Rollins album, and the Wes Montgomery live album Smokin' at the Half Note as my top picks.  George van Eps and the old Kress and McDonough recordings are particular favorites as well.  John McLaughlin is not to be neglected, and there is also the incomparable Bola Sete from Brazil.

Here is Nicolai's home page, with many papers on management and also Austrian economics.  Nicolai, of course, also blogs at Organizations and Markets, which has been on our blog roll for some time.  Here is my other host, Mark Lorenzen.

Why has opera singing declined?

Bryan Caplan has been lending me CDs from the splendid series Lebendige Vergangenheit (and here), so I've been hearing or rehearing the best opera singers from the past.  I'm no cultural pessimist, but I share the common opinion that opera singing has declined since, say, 1935.  Why might this be?

1. Opera is less culturally central, and so the best voices do something else, or they are more likely to be narrow technicians rather than inspired musical creators and interpreters. 

2. The best voices grow up watching TV, rather than reading Romain Rolland and Thomas Mann.  The Zeitgeist makes them dull.

3. The average voice is much better, there is simply less individuality in approach and thus lower peaks.  This sort of culturally mysterious process also seems to be governing fiction.

4. The best voices came from Germany and Italy and Austria, and World War II destroyed the musical and vocal training networks of those countries.

5. Conservatories and agents choke off musical individuality in the interests of technique and conformity.

6. Opera is now more heavily subsidized and more organizationally bureaucratic.  The programs, while still excellent, are biased against individualistic, crowd-pleasing singers and biased toward singers who don't make many identifiable mistakes.  It's a bit like the advent of peer review in economics.

Your thoughts?

The music of Edward Cumberbatch

My Eddie Cumberbatch CD came today (markets in everything, indeed), courtesy of Amazon.de.  Eddie sings tenor and lead role on Samuel Felsted's 18th century Jamaican oratorio Jonah.  I'm not crazy; although the music is not to my taste Eddie is as good as I had remembered him.

Here are also some MP3s, truly brief, stirring at times, but shakier in quality and sound; thanks to the ingenious Chug for the pointer.  Here is my previous post on Edward Cumberbatch.

Edward Cumberbatch

Eddie wants to continue improving the quality of his performances but does not envision himself as a full-time professional singer.  A life on the road, a continuity of auditions for roles do not fit his preferred ordered lifestyle.  However, should an opportunity arise to work with a famed Music Company he would welcome the experience.

Edward Cumberbatch is a national treasure of Trinidad.  I heard Eddie in concert about ten years ago, in a high school auditorium in Port of Spain.  His sister played piano.  I was blown away by Eddie's voice and his stage presence.  He could sing anything from gospel (his origins) to classical to swing.  His creole version of the love duet in Donizetti's The Elixir of Love remains one of the musical highlights of my life.  At the time, Eddie seemed like a more compelling artist than Domingo, Bryn Terfel, or any of the other voices I have heard in concert.  But mostly he sings in his church choir for no remuneration or even fame.

Joshua Bell's Washington Metro performance has got me thinking more about Eddie.  Is Eddie an undiscovered vocal genius?  An unreliable charismatic who swindles the ears of lesser mortals?  An eccentric who simply refuses to step into his rightful place on the global stage?  A beneficiary from low expectations, who would choke if given a recital at the Met?  A wise man who knows where true happiness lies?  Here is more on Eddie.

I was shocked when I read in the program notes that Eddie also has a Ph.d. in Physics from Indiana University.

I continue to believe in him.  Can I go through life not doing more about Eddie?

Addendum: Read this article on how social forces influence our evaluation of music.

Markets in everything

Looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift for that mom who loves Schoenberg?  The Schoenberg Center in Vienna can cover your needs.  The Schoenberg Shop is offering Schoenberg T-shirts (mit Aphorismen), pencils, mousepads, and postcards.  Also check out Schoenberg on YouTube.  And, of course, Schoenberg Webradio and Schoenberg Jukebox are still going strong.

Here is the link.

You can't fool MR readers

You may remember that a month or so ago I pledged, as an experiment in innovative consumption, not to buy a new CD for an entire year.  Some of you -- agnotheists I suppose -- said I wouldn't last three weeks but you were wrong.  I lasted three weeks and two days.  As I carried my CD up to the counter at Borders, the sales clerk smiled gently.  He then announced that he was a loyal MR reader who visits the blog twice a day.  I didn't even have to agonize over whether I was obliged to report my weakness to you all.   

I haven't unwrapped it yet.

Joshua Bell plays the Washington Metro

Never have I had so many reader requests for commentary on a current topic.  In case you didn't know, violin maestro Joshua Bell pulled out his $3.5 million violin in the Metro and started playing world class, beautiful music (reader comments here).  Hardly anyone noticed and he pulled in about $37 in donations; here is commentary from Levitt.

The first lesson is that most people are ninnies, with little or no taste in randomly presented cultural fields.  But that's OK, I can't tell a good computer game from a bad one, or even figure out how to turn them on. 

The second lesson is that most people don't actually like the violin.  The register is simply too high for them.  Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (get Milstein) are among the most splendid pieces of classical music ever composed and they repay many repeated listenings without growing stale or tired.  They are underheard, even among Bach lovers.

Most people also don't like the squawking of John Coltrane; for a treat, try Ascension.  I am convinced these are matters of cognition rather than of taste.

For the pointer, thanks to um..almost all of you.

Addendum: A fellow blogger and I once wondered if James Joyce were blogging today, without benefit of celebrity, and producing prose of the highest order, how many hits would he get a day?

Elton John baits my view on globalized culture

Conservation organisations say that St Mark's Square in Venice could be damaged by two concerts to be staged there on 5 and 6 June by British pop star Elton John. The concerts are part of Sir Elton's Red Piano tour and will coincide with the opening of the Venice Biennale.  Although the City of Venice has not yet granted official permission for the concerts to take place, tickets for the events are already for sale online.  Prices start at 200 euros with the top advertised price set at 1,000 euros.  Around 5,000 tickets are available for each event.

Note it is the crowd which would damage the square, not the concert itself.  Here is the story.  Venice was splendid, and Yana, who came along, enjoyed it as well.  I learned you have to walk, from the square, about twenty minutes to arrive in any part of town which could at least vaguely be considered "real."  Thirty minutes, if you take away the quotation marks and demand the actual real.

Economic deconstructions of rock songs

First comes a quotation from the lyrics, then an analysis, for instance:

"From the Monongaleh valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name"

This excerpt from Bruce Springsteen's song "Youngstown" suggests that he is owed something for making the plant owners rich. According to economists Paul Gomme and Peter Rupert, labor's share of value-added in the nonfinancial corporate sector is around 74%. Are these perspectives at odds with one another? Please explain.

Here is the blog, an offshoot from Division of Labor.  Here is a discussion of "Rock Island Line."  Here is George Harrison's "Taxman."  Thanks to Dan Klein for the pointer.

My favorite Monteverdi

How can the most erotic major composer also be the most underrated major composer?  (Could it be that people are ninnies?)  Constructing a basic Monteverdi library is simple, you should start with the following:

1. Vespers, his masterpiece.  Opt for Andrew Parrott (first choice) or Pearlman (budget label, excellent recording).

2. The Books of Madrigals.  The clear first choice is to get the discs by Rinaldo Alessandrini, start with Book Eight, noting the set is incomplete.  Second choice would be the collection by Brit Anthony Rooley, beautiful but lacking comparable flourish and diction.

3. L'Orfeo, the opera.  Try the Rene Jacobs or John Eliot Gardiner recordings.  The Coronation of Poppea has its virtues but it takes much longer to love.

4. Most enjoyable single disc: Monteverdi: Duets and Solos; fewer CDs capture the ecstasy of music and love better than this one.

5. Best way to expand the Monteverdi collection at the margin: Buy more books of madrigals.

Yes Monteverdi is from Mantua but he counts as Venice also.  He is a composer I never grow tired of.

My favorite things German, Richard Wagner edition

Here are seven ways -- new for some of you -- to enjoy Wagner:

1. Chuck your highlights disc and listen to Wagner for the endless yelping, barking, and the seesawing of the vocal rhythms.  They call it Sprechstimme.  Listen to Wagner through Alban Berg's Wozzeck.  That's the best way, seriously.

2. Pull out some old piano transcriptions of Wagner, by Liszt and others.  You can track the melodies without being distracted by orchestration or, for that matter, the Sprechstimme.

3. Stop thinking that Lohengrin, The Flying Dutchman, or Tannhaeuser will ever be that enjoyable.

4. Buy Boulez doing Wagner.  The swift Frenchman cuts a whole compact disc out of Parsifal.  That the streamlined approach works so well is a testament to the strength of the music.

5. Read the libretto of The Ring, or the original text of Tristan and Iseult, straight up, with or without the music in the background.

6. While listening to Parsifal, read Nietzsche on Wagner.

7. Listen to the Prelude and Liebestod, from Tristan, over and over again until you go insane.

I do have other good ideas, but this is a family blog.

#36 in a series of 50.

My favorite things German: J.S. Bach

One reader requested "My Favorite Things German" for weeks (possible, but yikes), instead he'll get selected tidbits, today is J.S. Bach.

1. Organ music: I favor the Trio Sonatas, most of all by Christopher Herrick.  After that, buy any collection by Herrick or Peter Hurford.

2. Brandenburg Concerti: I don't like most recordings of these; they either sound like sewing machines or they are whiny.  But both Felix Prohaska or Otto Klemperer are supremely musical with these pieces.

3. Keyboard music: Go for piano not harpischord.  For Well-Tempered Klavier get the dreamy Samuel Feinberg or Richter, for the English Suite in A Minor get Glenn Gould, for the Partitas get Glenn Gould, for the Goldbergs get both Gould recordings.  Best of all is the Art of the Fugue, for piano, by Grigory Sokolov.

4. B Minor Mass: Gardiner or Herreweghe.

5. St. Matthew's Passion: Klemperer (the best voices), Suzuki (all-Japanese, and fantastic), or Herreweghe.

6. Solo Violin music: Get the second Nathan Milstein set, the stereo recording.  Perlman's version is technically perfect but doesn't sound like a real violin.

7. Solo Cello Suites: Rostropovich is romantic, Starker is analytical, and Navarra is underrated.

That, in my view, is the truly essential Bach.  I've never developed the same love for his Cantatas, too many of them were churned out or recycled.  They were better to buy on LP, when you could get one excellent cantata on each side.  Most of the available CD cantata collections contain a fair amount of chaff.

#33 out of 50.

How much music is enough?

I've been sampling the Bach box and I pronounce it worth buying.  Compared to the available full-price recordings, I give it a 7 out of 10 and that is for 65 cents per disc.  The sound is generally quite good, the performances of the chamber music are excellent, the harpischord occasionally stale (I prefer Bach on piano), the masses and passions are above average, and most of the cantatas are "good enough."  It won't displace my very fa