Chrono Compendium
Zenan Plains - Site Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Lord J Esq on October 09, 2005, 04:50:36 am
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This topic hopes to promote the enjoyment of classical music among people who might not otherwise have much contact with it, by showcasing specific compositions and going into a bit of their background. Those who are interested in a piece of recommended music are encouraged to listen to it for themselves. Anyone is welcome to participate.
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Today’s Recommended Masterpiece: If I Had Words
Symphony No. 3 in C Minor (“Organ”): Maestoso – Allegro (4th Mvt.), Op. 78
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921)
Dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No.3 in C minor is one of the most important works in French symphonic music. The piece was commissioned by the London Philharmonic, and first performed in 1886 in London. It was famously played during London’s grandest World’s Exposition in 1900, complete with cathedral pipe organ and full grand piano. This was written at a time when Old World Europe had not yet lost its strange magic to existentialism and the industrial machine. It is a beautiful composition that holds in it the glory and genius of the Fin de Siecle spirit.
But you might be familiar with it anyway. If you’ve ever seen the movie Babe, the tale of a heartwarming, sheepherding pig, then you may remember the song “If I Had Words.” Well, as a matter of fact, that song was based on the fourth and final movement of this very organ symphony. You will recognize the melody very early in the piece. Saint-Saëns would not produce another symphony after this masterpiece. By the time of his death in 1921, his popularity in France had waned and many of his works are no longer played, but this one remains well-known even today.
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Okay, with this topic I seem to have found the Chrono Compendium equivalent of a cinderblock. But that won’t stop me from bringing outstanding classical music to the masses! I’d post the bloody songs right here if I could, were it not for the fact that 101 percent of the music I own is not licensed for public redistribution. Blast the curse of inconvenience, and a pox on the soul of the fools who thought to stand in the way of Lord J, Esquire!
But I tell you what. I’m a Professor Moriarty type. My crimes are not without the best intentions for myself and my fellow man! And I hold that the copyright violation would not be against the composer but the symphony performing the specific rendition, and that because those symphonies thrive upon the enjoyment of classical music by folks from every walk of life, I therefore conclude that respecting their license to the very last letter of the law is less prudent than exposing laypeople to classical music in the first place! So I will upload the file anyway, and keep it available here online for a short period of time, unless one of the administrators or the redoubtable GrayLensman tells me to stop. Either way, the link goes bye-bye soon, but for the next few hours, here is your big chance! I will upload the last episode as well (Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony), which is much harder to find, for the same period of time.
Anyhow, let’s get on with it, shall we? If you read this topic after the link is gone, but are still interested, then I highly encourage anyyou to seek out and “acquire” the music in question on your own.
Classical music…it’s not just for geeks anymore!
~ Maestro J
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Today’s Recommended Masterpiece: The Pastorale
Symphony No. 6 in F Major (“Pastoral”): Awakening of Joyful Feelings Upon Arrival in the Country (1st Mvt.), Op. 68
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)
The Sixth Symphony, almost an anomaly in Beethoven’s oeuvre, truly is a “pastorale” in the deepest sense, a lush musical counterpart to the paintings of Constable or the poetry of Wordsworth. In this symphony, written in 1808 in Vienna, Beethoven elevates program music to a genre of substance as we listen to his vision of what it might be like to spend an entire day in the country. In the history of the portrayal of Nature in the works of Man, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony occupies a place of its own.
But you might have heard it anyway. In fact, you have almost certainly heard at least the first 53 measures of this symphony before! Long ago there was an episode of The Simpsons called “Itchy and Scratchy and Marge (http://www.snpp.com/episodes/7F09.html),” where Marge got Itchy & Scratchy cancelled for being too violent. As a result, the children of Springfield opened their eyes and wandered outside to rediscover their lives as…wait for it…children !! And it was to this idyllic scene that we were treated to the aforementioned excerpt from Beethoven’s Sixth, known as his Pastoral Symphony for the feelings it evokes. (Of course, Springfield’s paradise was not to last. Ever the cultural sophist—at least for that episode—Marge was in favor of public nudity when Michelangelo’s David came to town. Her anti-smut allies branded her a hypocrite and Itchy & Scratchy was back on television the next day.)
To ordinary Americans, Beethoven is the most recognized of all the composers. The first bars of his Fifth Symphony are unmistakable, and the “Ode to Joy” in his ninth and final symphony is the veritable byword of classical music. You might remember that he was entirely deaf for the last several years of his life, yet persevered against all odds to go on to write some of the most beautiful music ever written. But the somewhat earlier Sixth Symphony receives less attention in the popular culture, and so I offer it to you today, in all its elegance and beauty, and I do very much hope you will listen to it with a curious mind and a tranquil heart!
The first movement of the Pastorale is called “Awakening of Joyful Feelings Upon Arrival in the Country,” and it may be the best ten minutes you spend all day.
Today’s Masterpiece: Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, Movement 1
Yesterday’s Masterpiece: Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, Movement 4
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Recommendation from a former cellist: Pachelbel's Canon. You've heard it, you just may not know it yet. Simple, elegant, beautiful.
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Recommendation from a former cellist: Pachelbel's Canon. You've heard it, you just may not know it yet. Simple, elegant, beautiful.
Nicely put. That would eventually have been one of my featured pieces, because I first heard it on the video game Utopia: The Creation of a Nation. Best game ever made.
In any event, stay tuned for the next exciting edition of Musical Masterpiece Theater with Lord J Esquire!
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Good evening, and welcome to Musical Masterpiece Theater. I am your host, Lord J. Alistair Cooke, Esquire.
Many of us have a certain, “outside looking in” fascination with classical music. We know the names Bach and Beethoven…and Mozart…but never go out of our way to listen to the music they composed. We appreciate and admire this music all our lives, from afar, without ever really listening to it for ourselves or inviting it into our hearts. The closest most of us ever come to touching classical music on a regular basis is hearing pop remixes, or snippets of it in movies. When it comes up in conversation we rave about what fine art it is, and such a cultural godsend at that…but when the chips are down and the radio is on, we just don’t tune in.
These are the sorts of people I hope to touch with this thread. You need not attend the symphony or wear a monocle to enjoy fine classical music. Just lean back in the comfort of your own room and give up a few minutes of your week to come visit Musical Masterpiece Theater, and your journey will already be well underway. Indeed, here you are now!
It is of Mozart I wish to speak today. If the topic ever comes up—and, strangely enough, someday it probably will—where someone asks you your favorite composer, but you don’t know enough classical music to have a personal answer, the “correct” reply is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As near as such a thing can be looked at objectively, Mozart was the finest composer the world has ever known. And you’re welcome to disagree with that, as many would and as I myself do, but then you would find yourself in a debate over classical music, and we mustn’t rush to be that esoteric in a single day. =)
The Story of Mozart
I’m an agnostic; I’d be an atheist if it weren’t for Mozart.
If you’ve ever tried to understand the word music as no mere word but an entire way of life, then you can begin to understand what Mozart accomplished for this medium of art. Mozart can evoke any mood. If your imagination is strong, he can evoke emotions you have never felt before. The man knew music. One anecdote recounts how Mozart could turn around on a bench, lean backwards, and play the piano upside down. Another details how Mozart would conjure up music in his mind’s eye, and when transcribing it to paper he would already be dreaming up his next piece at the very same time. It isn’t to say that everything he touched became pure gold, but enough of his vast repertoire is still a fixture in classical music over 200 years later that it would be hard to overstate the man’s genius.
The story of Mozart’s life is itself a work of art, woven with genius, misery, opportunity, and the mundane. Taught music almost from the cradle by his father—himself a composer—the boy Mozart was the very epitome of the child prodigy, playing on the keyboard by age three and composing by age five. Possessed of such conspicuous skill at such a tender age, his father saw in the boy the potential for a hefty income, and the two of them traveled the courts of Europe together where Mozart was showcased as a boy genius. As he grew into adulthood, Mozart continued to mature in his compositions and grasp of music theory, producing some of history’s most notable works and becoming associated with some of the best composers of the period. He eventually settled in Vienna where he lived out the remainder of his short life before dying prematurely, at less than 36 years old, having lived the final years of his life beyond his financial means and in poor health. He had six children, four of whom died in infancy and none of whom had children of their own, thus bringing an end to the direct Mozart bloodline in a single generation.
Mozart was one of those composers whose fame increased posthumously, and only once the man was gone forever did the world begin to realize what a treasure it had lost. He was not a simple man, and his music was not easily understood at first. Even his “entertainment music” was stamped with his inimitably complex flavor. His enormous musical output—over 626 pieces in all, including nearly 70 symphonies—comprises works that are widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Many of his works are part of the standard concert repertory even today, and are widely recognized as masterpieces of the classical style. His music invites a lifetime of contemplation, and a love of beauty.
Which brings us to today’s masterpiece…
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Today’s Recommended Masterpiece: Duettino sul Aria
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro): Act 3: Duettino: “Che Soave Zeffietto” – Susanna, Contessa; K 492
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 – 1791)
Opera. You know, that stuff where the fat lady sings, shatters some glass with her voice, and gets carried away by a guy in horns, at which point “it’s over.” But of course that is a caricature—and perhaps one that Mozart himself might have appreciated. His famous comic opera The Marriage of Figaro was itself a scathing piece of work mocking the Viennese aristocracy, and was so politically controversial that it was banned for a time from that lovely city. Here is a suitably brief synopsis (http://www.wbopera.org/0102/Figaro/story/) of the Figaro storyline. And yet the music itself of that opera is no joke. Oh, far from it, as you will shortly hear. This evening’s piece is the famous “Duettino sul Aria,” which is Italian for “Duet on the Air,” and is widely acclaimed as being among the most beautiful songs from any opera.
But you might have heard it anyway. Hearken back, if you will, to The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 film that deserved Best Picture but lost to the outstanding Forrest Gump. You may recall that the main character, Andy, is something of a savant, and a lover of the fine arts. So, after six years of writing letters to the state government requesting money and books for Shawshank Penitentiary to establish a library for its inmates, he is vindicated by many boxes of books delivered to the Supervisor’s office, accompanied by a check for two hundred dollars. When the guards leave momentarily, Andy savors his victory; he leafs through a stack of used record albums in a wooden crate and finds a boxed set of Mozart’s beloved opera, The Marriage of Figaro, which is why we are here tonight, after all. Its story is about a servant named Figaro who outwits his master, Count Almaviva, and in a symbolic touch that you probably missed when you saw the film, Andy parallels this valiant spirit in his next action. He places the record Duettino: Sull’Aria (an alternate spelling) on a phonograph player in the office, locks the doors, and broadcasts the opera on the P.A. system throughout the entire prison to share a moment of freedom and make the prison vanish. As his best friend Red puts it:
I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.
That was Mozart’s accomplishment, his genius. For those of us who spend a lifetime “outside looking in” at the world of classical music, Mozart at his finest can put you right there, inside the music, looking out upon the beauty of the world in a way not otherwise possible. And all this in a comic work!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart produced a “mere” twenty-odd operas in his life. Opera was the prestige genre of the time, and Mozart loved it dearly and counted on it heavily for personal, professional, artistic, and financial reasons of the greatest weight. Just the thought of opera, as Mozart wrote, made him “beside myself at once.”
The world of the operatic stage spoke deeply to his primal instinct for play, his taste for fantasy, and his restless creative imagination. With some embellishment, Mozart’s operas are said to vie with each other to be considered among the greatest achievements of human artistic striving.
The duet on the air makes that thought almost believable.
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Today’s Masterpiece: The Marriage of Figaro, Duettino sul Aria
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My favorite piece is The Moldau (Vltava) by Bedřich Smetana. It's quite a moving piece that while it's possible you've heard it before, it's quite possible that you haven't as well. Soft, yet powerful. Interesting reading the Wikipedia Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Smetana) on him in that he became deaf later in life, and yet kept composing.
Not necessarily one of the more famous pieces around, but extremely solid.
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Bah, there's always Paganini if you want extreme technical skill. He was a gaunt fellow, and had very long fingers. He was an incredible violinist, and composed absurdly difficult pieces so that he could play and show off his seemingly unnatural skill. Of course, he was arrested because he was thought to be the devil. While in prison, he had a violin with but one string on it, and composed a series of pieces for one stringed-violin.
After his death, he was denied burail for 5 years until his family's petitions were finally accepted.
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I like Palladio by Karl Jenkins. And Mars - God of War by Gustav Holst. And Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (duh). And pretty much anything by Sergei Prokofiev.
Sorry to be so broad. I really do love Classical. It's incredibly ingenius and beautiful and mood-setting.
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Has anyone here watched the Pianist? What was that song called in the beginning, the one he played? Beautiful. Sorry 'bout the vagueness.
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Good evening, and welcome to Musical Masterpiece Theater. Even after all this time, I am still your host, Lord J. Alistair Cooke, Esquire.
It is that time of the year again, when people of every race and creed, in all the corners of the world, from pole to pole, put down their burdens of the everyday and come together to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In modern times, our celebration is heralded by a debt-addled glut of holiday gift-giving, a surfeit of sweets and meats that go straight to the waistline, the cheerful yet stressful togetherness and joy of family reunions and visits with old friends, and also by dressing in red and white, racking up audacious electricity bills with festive twinkling lights, killing a whole lot of Douglas firs, and listening to quaint European and folk American music that, at any other time of the year, would be banned and punishable by death.
I exaggerate, of course…at least, in the case of the music. It’s really not all that bad. Quite good, even. In fact, of all the problems that Christianity has brought into this world, there are two great joys that it has nevertheless bequeathed unto us. One is the splendid grandeur of Christian architecture. The other is Christmas music. Nothing is quite so uniquely beautiful as two hundred voices coming together in harmony to glorify the fantastical, nor as comforting as the warmth of participating in an aural tradition greater than us and wide as the whole world. Nothing is quite so uniquely beautiful as immersing our minds into the weaving fourths and fifths and rousing minor falls and major lifts of Western Christmas music, from Handel's ethereal Messiah to Vince Guaraldi’s jazz de opus for A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Spanning every genre of music, Christmas music is now a genre of its own. It welcomes music from all walks of life…the popular, the old, the corny, the ridiculous. Songs to comfort us, each in our own way and in our unique style. Songs to warm us. Songs to remind us. Songs to help us forget. Songs that would long ago have otherwise perished into extinction have endured as facets of the Christmas season. And songs so poignant or glorious they may damn well last forever.
Of course, this is a classical music appreciation hall, so tonight I would like to spice up the Compendium’s yuletide cheer with a little Christmas caroling by the world-famous Boston Pops Orchestra. If you listen to classical music, you are probably familiar with The Boston Pops, but even if you have never heard of them before in your life, there is a good chance you have heard their recordings before. They are everywhere…because they are just that good. And because they are a classical symphony orchestra that specializes in popular music—which I felt would be in the best tradition of the Christmas music genre as a whole. What better occasion for me to invite popular music into Musical Masterpiece Theater than at Christmas, under the auspicious talents of The Boston Pops?
Indeed, hopefully it would not be too much of a blasphemy to call them…The Lord’s Orchestra.
No, not me. The other Lord.
A Christmas Festival
In Boston, Christmas music is synonymous with The Boston Pops, and, for many people, Christmas music is synonymous with its legendary conductor, the late Arthur Fielder. Composed in 1970, “A Christmas Festival” was a recording that featured several of the most universally adored Christmas songs, arranged to a full orchestra, and woven together into a single, ten-minute flight of ecstasy. The Festival originally was a slow-paced, purely orchestral experience that invited listeners to visit a realm where time has no meaning, every day is Christmas, and Santa’s rule over the Earth was absolute. Or something like that.
It became quite famous, and you may purchase it (http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Festival-Boston-Pops/dp/B000003EP8) if you are so inclined. It might make for a good Christmas present for a friend or family member. In addition to the Festival, there are a number of other Christmas songs, all recorded by The Boston Pops.
The original recording inspired some fine renditions over the years. More recently is the version I have chosen, arranged and conducted in 1992 by the great John Williams, best known for A) the Star Wars music, and, B) about 42 trillion other film soundtracks. His version of the Festival takes a much more excited tempo that speaks more fancifully to listeners at home who cannot be there to enjoy the full weight of the orchestra in person. He also adds a full choir to the music, which offers much more emotional resonance to those of you who perhaps have a harder time connecting with classical music.
And yes, you can buy this one too (http://www.bestprices.com/cgi-bin/vlink/079895997221.html). (They also list it at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Joy-World-John-Williams/dp/B0000027WR), but it is currently sold out.)
Before you listen to this music, be sure to set your cares down by the door. And if you cannot quite set them all down, then don’t worry. The music will do the rest. Now here it is, without further ado: “A Christmas Festival,” by John Williams conducting the Boston Pops!
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Today’s Recommended Masterpiece: A Christmas Festival
Joy To the World – John Williams, The Boston Pops Orchestra
ARTHUR FIEDLER (1894 – 1979)
P.S. Remember, this file will only be available online for a short time. Afterwards, I will take it down. As always, the download is free...but you might have to sit through 45 seconds of ads.
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My favorite piece is The Moldau (Vltava) by Bedřich Smetana.
I am detecting large quantities of win in this sector, Captain.
If you like Star Wars-type music, I'd recommend anything by Richard Wagner, but especially his Ring cycle.
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Since we have so many new forumers these days, I am casting Necromancy Lv. 4 on this thread. This thread differs from the "what are you listening to" thread in that its purpose is not for us to tell one another what we're listening to, but to foster appreciation for specific classical music and encourage others to listen to it.
In the past I have posted temporary links to the musical performances which you see in my previous posts. I will continue to do so, to make this music more accessible. I can't promise that I will be able to put as much attention and detail into my future posts as I have on some of the previous ones, but hopefully the music will still speak to you just as profoundly regardless of how I might describe it.
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Chopin's "Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX-oATJzdOI) is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. There's a sort of haunting and reflective quality to it.
I tried to get into Debussy's "Claire de Lune" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o) and while I love the opening, it kind of jumps the shark for me midway. I was inspired to check it out when I read an essay about how the piece reflected the international mood that prevailed prior to World War I. Yesterday's music, inasmuch as it is a "pop cultural" artifact, is an interesting way of trying to get in touch with the people of the era.
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Ahhh, yes! If there were ever a classical composer who merited a double post, it must be Camille Saint-Saens.
Danse Macabre (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csJJIp7jCYA)
Danse Bacchanale (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dT-IunIY5Q)
Rondo Capriccioso, Op.28 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD059jkt6bs)
Presto from Piano Concerto No.2 in G Minor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlBYLebMTdQ)
Allegro Moderatro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic8-5XvpHhc)
Saint Saens' music is so acoustically powerful, and uses that power in such a way that the listener almost can't help that some story sprouts up in his or her mind to go along with the music. I guess that's the whole point of chamber music.
I don't know if anyone else is as picky as I am when it comes to classical, but I find it kind of horrendous that lacking digital recordings of the original pieces being played, we have to rely on second-hand reproductions that often vary considerably in tempo and style. Sony Classical's "Greatest Hits" version of Saint-Saens, featuring Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Bernstein was a particularly awesome portrayal IMO.
EDIT: Darn, looks like you beat me to some of these J.
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Sergei Profokiev. Concerto no........4? G minor. The real deal.
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Dvorak's 4th movement from his New World Symphony. Always liked that one since childhood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yctfXIqugXc
Also, though it's already been mentioned, Orff's work, though I think the person who mentioned it is probably thinking more along the lines of the most famous song, the 'O Fortuna' from the 'Fortuna Imperiatrix Mundi' segment. Personally, I think that the second song in that part, 'Fortuna Plango Vulnera', is superior. However, I will grace the work with a repost, especially considering this quite interesting version of it: this is the first two songs strung together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP_CSQgBPpQ
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Good evening, and welcome to Musical Masterpiece Theater, a service of the Sedulous Boation Corporation. As ever, I am your host, Lord J. Alistair Cooke, Esquire.
Classical music threatens its admirers with obsolescence. We could blame the peasantry for being too unsophisticated, but we would be wrong to do so, for they were never responsible for the institution’s health. Classical music is and has always been for those who have the mind to appreciate it, and the money to seek it out. Even today, when classic masterpieces sell alongside popular hissing for pennies on the latter’s dollar, few people want to buy them. Even today’s modest classical music institutions are financially tenuous.
Many people have suggested that the way forward is to bring classical music to “the people,” those vaunted successors to the peasantry of old. Love of music is a human constant, after all, and classical music is not simply one flavor among many others, desirable only to those who enjoy its taste. It is objectively superlative, pleasant of figure and gracefully built. Shouldn’t more people enjoy it, if only they were encouraged by their peers to give it a chance?
Perhaps not. Tempting the masses with excellence is a fool’s errand. They want bargains and gratification, and flattery. But I do support the initiative of trying to popularize classical music. I have said before that I consider the symphony orchestra to be humanity’s finest invention to date, and, if one is willing to occasionally risk being affirmed in her or his cynicism by taking a chance and offering something excellent to the public, then classic music is certainly one of those propositions worth chancing.
Thus, I do not view “classical music” as merely the domain of long-dead composers who wrote music in a very specific style and achieve recognition today through the performances of their work by symphony orchestras. I extend my consideration of classical music to include all highly structured symphonic work, including that produced for motion pictures and video games, and I even go farther to include smaller musical assemblies below the orchestral level, and instruments not typically considered classical. Indeed, to me, this is not the least bit controversial. Classical music is self-evidently classical music, no matter where it comes from, defined by its symphonic qualities and structural complexity, and not its pedigree. Many other forms of music qualify as classical in addition to whatever specific genre they occupy.
To deny this yet hold up classical music as excellent is to declare oneself a snob, and that is something that your dear Lord J. Alistair Cooke, Esquire, would never do! Therefore I should very much like to share with you a piece of music that could not possibly be called pretentious, even as it surely could never fail to be called classical.
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Today’s Recommended Masterpiece: “New Planet / Rabbit / School Chum” & “A Clue / Finnegan’s Return / Leg Trick / Dirt Trick / Tiger Thoughts / 2nd Samurai”
Star Trek: Volume 3 – Shore Leave and The Naked Time
GERALD FRIED (b. 1928)
As you can see this is not one single piece of music, but in fact nine different musical cues collected into two distinct performance pieces. They were scored by Gerald Fried for an episode of the original Star Trek, “Shore Leave,” a tale of the Enterprise’s visit to a beautiful planet where mere thoughts quickly became reality.
Captain Kirk encountered Finnegan, a rival and practical joker from Kirk’s cadet days back at Starfleet Academy. “My own personal devil,” Kirk said. On the shore leave planet, Finnegan appeared exactly as he had looked then, having not aged a day despite the passage of years, and he wasted no time punching Kirk in the face, just like old times.
That’s the story behind the first piece of music. The “New Planet” refers to the shore leave planet itself. The “Rabbit” section refers to Dr. McCoy’s encounter with the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. “School Chum” is the introduction to the theme for Finnegan himself. Finnegan’s theme is not like anything else in the episode soundtrack. Just like regional accents, classical music has accents. Finnegan is an Irish caricature, scrapping for a fight and laughing like a maniac. (One has to be prepared for 1960s-era racism and sexism when watching the old Star Trek.) His theme is based upon the style of Irish traditional music. You will recognize it as soon as you hear it.
Television music scores are usually written to be modular. This saves money by allowing the producers to use the same music across multiple episodes. Much of the music from this episode appears elsewhere in the series. Finnegan’s music, however, was so ethnic in nature, and so distinctive on top of that, that it rarely showed up again beyond that one episode. It ended up being an expensive embellishment upon the most farcical of characters. But all was not lost; the music made Finnegan considerably more memorable.
The second piece of music, and the stronger of the two, covers events later in the episode. Finnegan returns, still itching for a fight. What follows is probably the best Captain Kirk fight scene in Star Trek history. Finnegan leads him on a wild goose chase across the glades and gullies of this paradisaical planet, laughing maniacally the whole time, and the two of them beat the ever-loving stuffing out of one another. Meanwhile, this playful, impish music is playing in the background. The two don’t hate each other. They just want to beat each other senseless. It’s absolutely delightful!
“Shore Leave” was Gerald Fried’s first work for Star Trek. He went on to score other episodes, and he is the one who wrote the famous Kirk versus Spock fight theme which became probably the most memorable in-episode music from any episode or series of Star Trek. (If you’re ever watching a parody of a Star Trek fight, and overly-dramatic music starts playing, it’s probably the Kirk versus Spock fight theme.) Maestro Fried had a talent for making use of the relatively small orchestra available to him to achieve a wide variety of sounds, and his themes were always distinct and often memorable. They not only conveyed a lot of dramatic depth, but, seemingly paradoxically, they could also usually be ripped apart and spliced into other episodes without losing much of their impact.
Of all his contributions, why am I sharing his relatively obscure Irish kitsch music? Well, for one thing because I like it. I liked it so much that it, together with Finnegan himself, inspired me in my own art. But, for another thing, I’m sharing this piece in particular because, when it comes to recycled music in film and television, if you have a discerning ear then you can tell the difference between music written explicitly for the action on the screen and music recycled from another source.
Most of Fried’s other Star Trek work showed up again in other episodes, but Finnegan’s theme was so much a part of the caricature of Finnegan himself that it was simply not recyclable—not generic enough. It was too distinctive. And I think that’s a good thing. My view is that the best music is so distinctive that it loses much of its interchangeable quality. Finnegan’s theme would probably do okay if it was recycled for other scenes involving fisticuffs with an Irish prankster, but even then you’d have to be careful to make all the individual components mesh with the action—a difficult feat! Finnegan’s theme is distinct in great part because of its accent. To the typical American ear, it has an “Irish” flavor to it, although some people would mistake it for “Celtic.” Either way, it stands out and attaches itself to our own stereotypes about Irish people.
But Finnegan’s theme is also distinct in great part because it is very well-written. Most importantly, it is melodically complex. One of the reasons I don’t give more credit to composers like Hans Zimmer is that their melodies tend to be generic and simple—because they like to eschew major melodic work in favor of endless variation on a few leitmotifs. Fried’s melody for Finnegan’s is, while straightforward, quite well-developed as a self-contained musical premise, and correspondingly distinctive. A simpler way to say it is that it’s catchy.
But this excellent composition goes beyond just the melody. The dynamics are rich, surprisingly so! In television music, there are usually only two volumes: loud music that plays when nobody is talking, and soft music that plays when they are. Finnegan’s theme crosses several dynamic ranges, enough so that to hear the soft parts well the loud parts are going to be quite loud indeed. This may not actually have been a good idea for the television space, but in a standalone context it adds considerable depth to the piece. Dynamics, after all, comprise an entire dimension in the musical space. This is something that pop music as a whole never figured out.
Another aspect to consider is the fact that Maestro Fried brings out the different voices of the orchestra in so complementary a fashion that it almost inspires the imagery of a story. That is, the music itself seems to tell a story of its own, with the individual instruments playing the parts of the characters. In both pieces, the oboe introduces the melody in a sassy, impish fashion. The strings become a gallery of fiddles, chirping in staccato and singing as though they were in an Irish jig. A blunt and overbearing xylophone—like Finnegan himself—follows the melody along during the later fight scenes, making sure the listener won’t miss the melody for the action on the screen. The brass is put into the role of reiteration—of “hitting home the point”—something which brass is well-suited to do, given its ability to be powerful at lower dynamic levels.
All of these elements are the hallmarks of a piece of music composed with deliberate intention, masterful skill, and artistic passion. I don’t know what Fried himself thought of Finnegan’s theme when he wrote it, but I’m sure he was able to say that it represented the character and even stands on its own as a listenable piece of music—as you will shortly have the chance to decide for yourself.
One noteworthy point: You could make a strong case that Sol Kaplan, who scored the music for the Star Trek episode “The Doomsday Machine,” was a more intelligent composer who wrote even more technically sophisticated scores in the television sphere than Gerald Fried did. You would be right. However, Kaplan’s melodies aren’t as instantly catchy as Fried’s are—a testament to the well-developed melody—and, in a medium where the listener’s attention is fixed primarily on the action and dialogue on the screen, catchiness is very powerful.
Not to mention eminently populist.
Now, therefore, let’s get to the music.
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Today’s Masterpieces:
“New Planet / Rabbit / School Chum”
“A Clue / Finnegan’s Return / Leg Trick / Dirt Trick / Tiger Thoughts / 2nd Samurai”
It has been a few years since I last shared music here, and since then I have come to realize that, because I own (a license to use) the content in question, I can legitimately provide this music to you for educational purposes. After all, that’s the point of the thread. That makes me happy.
As usual, I will only make these pieces of music available for a short time. After that, you should buy them yourself. They are available for a dollar apiece at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QZV2DS/ref=dm_sp_alb), or you can buy the entire album—and there is some very interesting music on it!