Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

In an previous posting I wrote about April as an important month in movie history and mentioned the significant contribution played by Thomas Edison. Through my favorite way of discovery, serenditiy, I just happened to discover a YouTube posting of some footage of Mark Twain. It was shot by the great inventor himself in 1909, just shortly after the Westport Library opened its doors in April 1908. Twain lived the last two years of his life in neighboring Redding and the footage features him and his beloved Stormfield, the stately home he had built there. I must admit to letting my imagination fly just a bit and got to wondering if Twain at least had an opportunity to take an admiring and perhaps envious glance at Westport’s new jewel. After all, he was busy raising money to build his own town library.

We are quickly approaching May, highlighted by programs on all things Twain, whose life and writings are this year's subject of our popular SpokenWord Series this year. Here’s a link to a true treat to watch in anticipation of all the wonderful programs planned for the month. Enjoy!

If you have never experienced a classical music concert and have always wanted to go, or have negative recollections of a high school performance or Music 101 in college, the concert series Free for All at Town Hall is for you. The next free concert is on Sunday, May 4 at 5:00 p.m. featuring the chamber music group Tashi. Tickets for the concert are distributed at noon on the day of the concert at New York's Town Hall.

When Tashi premiered 35 years ago, they were considered quite extraordinary by championing contemporary music along with the classics and for performing at unlikely venues. As Donal Henahan noted in the August 24, 1974 New York Times, "Peter Serkin and his friends put together a program of happily chosen music, and performed throughout with a rare amalgam of rapturous freedom and stylistic precision."

Sunday's concert will be a reunion for this group and for the piece that brought them together as a chamber music ensemble, Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Messiaen's work which was written in and first played in a German prisoner-of-war camp on January 15, 1941, was a product of his wartime experience as a German prisoner-of-war and in his deeply felt religious mysticism. The original artists comprising Tashi, pianist Peter Serkin, violinist Ida Kavafian, cellist Fred Sherry and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman will perform this work. Charles Wuorinen's Ave Maria...Virgo Serena of Josquin des Prez and Christes Crosse of Thomas Morley and Toru Takemitsu's Quatrain II are also on the program.

To help you catch gain an understanding of classica music, the Library has David Pogue's Classical Music for Dummies and Tim Smith's The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Classical Music.

This year the Westport Public Library will honor the Pulitzer Prize winning author Oscar Hijuelos author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love at our 10th annual Booked for the Evening event. If you’ve not had a chance to read this wonderful tale of Cuban music, love and the immigrant experience, I urge you to do so. The book was adapted into the high energy romance The Mambo Kings staring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas.

While not strictly a musical, the movie uses music to punctuate the story and convey the sometimes conflicted emotion of the recent immigrant to this country. Another film I love that succeeds so well in doing this is Big Night staring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub. This is the tale of Primo and Secondo, two Italian brothers who operate a failing Italian restaurant, Paradise. They scheme to get Louis Prima a famous crooner to dine at Paradise in the hopes his celebrity will revitalize their business.

Immigrants bring the food, cultural nuiances and certainly their music to this country.
I recently viewed and loved Songcatcher, which tells of the emotional ties and importance of songs brought to this country by its early Scot and Irish settlers when a musicologist stumbles upon a treasure trove of ballads in rural Appalachia. There are many films that use music to the advantage of the story in our collection. Staff also suggests Sueño about a Mexican singer’s experience in California.

Valerie Coleman, flutist and composer, founded the Imani Windwind Quintet ten years ago. She is the two-time laureate of the Young Artist Competition at Boston University where she also received the "Woodwind Award", was recipient of the Aspen Music Festival Wombwell Kentucky Award and was the first winner of the Michelle E. Sahm Memorial Award at the Tanglewood Festival. She serves on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music Advancement Program and The Interschool Orchestras of New York.

Jeff Scott began studying the french horn at age 14 and was the recipient of a scholarship to the Brooklyn College Preparatory Division. He received his Bachelor's degree from Manhattan School of Music, and Master's Degree from SUNY at Stony Brook and was privileged to study with Jerome Ashby, David Jolley, Scott Brubaker and William Purvis. He has given many workshops and performances under the auspices of Arts Genesis, Young Audiences of New York, and the Midori Foundation. He is a prolific arranger and composer that include scoring the off-Broadway production of Becoming Something, The Canada Lee Story, and many arrangements and original works for various chamber music and jazz groups.

The Imani Winds were awarded he 2007 ASCAP Award, the 2002 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the CMA/WQXR Award for their debut CD Umoja. Their program consists of Valerie Coleman's Suite: Portraits of Josephine, Jeff Scott's Homage to Duke, Julio Medaglia's Suite: Belle Epoque in Sud-Amerka and Valerie Coleman's Libertango.

Gounod, Charles. Romeo et Juliette

Mendelssohn, Felix. A Midsummer Night's Dream

Prokofiev, Sergey. Romeo and Juliet

Verdi, Giuseppe. Macbeth

Walton, William. Henry V Suite

"Play, music! And you, brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heap'd in joy, to the measures fall"
As You Like It (V, iv, 174)

Here is a list of musical works that may draw you closer to nature and give you an appreciation of its goodness and importance.

Barber, Samuel. String in the Earth and Air

Bridge, Frank. The Sea: Orchestral Suite

Britten, Benjamin. Four Sea Interludes

Chabrier, Emmanuel. Suite Pastorale

Copland, Aaron. The Tender Land

Debussy, Claude. La Mer

Nakai, R. Carlos. Earth Spirit: Native American Flute Music

Rutter, John. For the Beauty of the Earth

Smetana, Bedrich. The Moldau

Strauss, Richard. Alpine Symphony

Tan, Dun. Symphony 1997: Heaven Earth, Mankind

Vaughan Williams, Ralph. Symphony #3 "Pastoral"

A number of tunes are associated with the sport including Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Yankee's Revenge, Baseball Game and Baseball Kids. Richard Adler and Jerry Ross wrote a Faustian themed musical comedy Damn Yankees which ran on Broadway for 1,019 performances in the 1950's. It is noted for its memorable song "Whatever Lola Wants".

1908, the year in which the Westport Public Library opened on the Post Road, is also the year that Take Me Out to the Ballgame was written by Albert von Tilzer and Jack Norworth. Although the composer and lyricist never attended a game, it became the unofficial theme song of the sport.

"Take me out to the ballgame
Take me out with the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

On April 30, 1927 American’s Sweetheart Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were the first to imprint their feet in cement outside the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Other notables to leave their impressions during the month of April include Bing Crosby in 1936, Fredric March in 1937, Ray Miland in 1947 and Roy Rogers and Trigger in 1949.

Of course none of this would be possible without some earlier inventions. Inventors including Thomas Edison were experimenting with film cameras in the later part of the 19th century. In fact, Edison had been developing film cameras in conjunction with other inventors since the late 1880s. These early strips featured personalities such as Annie Oakley and were shown in arcades on individual viewing devices called Kinetoscopes. It wasn’t until 1902 that the first American movie theatre opened in April in Los Angeles. Admission cost about 10 cents for a one-hour show.

If you are interested in early films the Library’s collection does contain some silent films. Follow the link to see the selection.

Today marks the 140th anniversary of the premiere of Brahms' magisterial work A German Requiem, op. 45 (Ein Deutsches Requiem) at the Bremen Cathedral. This work for chorus and orchestra was primarily composed from 1865 to 1867, with the fifth movement added in 1868. It is not considered a conventional requiem mass since it does not utilize the traditional Latin liturgy; it is based on passages from Martin Luther's translation of the Bible. Additionally, its outlook appears to console the mourners rather than concentrating on the dead.

The Library's various recordings of this work include soprano Maria Stader and baritone Otto Wiener, soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau or soprano Dorothea Röschmann and baritone Thomas Quasthoff. For those interested in the life of Brahms, the Library has Hans Gal Johannes Brahms: His Work and Personality, Richard Specht's Johannes Brahms and Jan Swafford's Johannes Brahms: A Biography.

DVD releases of popular TV series are a growing part of the Westport Library’s collection. Sometimes, however, some really special TV programs first broadcast as series can be overlooked amidst the hoopla surrounding the release of popular shows. So while you are waiting for the next season of your favorite show to come out on DVD, how about trying something different?

Interested in Space? The Planets was a popular series shown on A&E. Grounded here on earth? Then the multipart PBS series Planet Earth is for you. Don’t have premium cable but want to see some acclaimed series? The library offers The Tudors a beautifully portrayed version of the early life of Henry VIII produced for Showtime and HBO’s Carnivále which follows a traveling carnival across the dustbowl during the depression.

PBS offers a look at two very different cultural experiences. Jewish Americans is a journey through time, from the first Jewish settlers until the present and The Way West chronicles the final settling of the American Frontier. Of course, PBS is well known for offering classic novels turned to film. The library has purchased the Complete Jane Austen, and divided the box set so you can choose to watch one or all of these exquisitely produced British productions.

The Teaching Company’s Great Courses educational series are often requested. The library has just acquired A Brief History of the World and Modern Economic Issues, two recently released courses on DVD. These courses are a bit lengthy and do require some time commitment to watch.

As always, we are happy to take suggestions for purchase.

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, which has the world's most comprehensive set of jazz programs, proposed this idea as a way to celebrate the extraordinary heritage of jazz and to encourage everyone to experience it by attending concerts, listening to recordings, reading about it or studying it. Many famous jazz artists were born in April including Johnny Dodds, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Herbie Hancock, Gerry Mulligan, etc.

Tomorrow evening the Westport Arts Center's Jazz to the Max series is featuring Freddie Bryant at the Pequot Library.

The Westport Library is showcasing its collection of jazz books, compact discs and videos with a display on the main level. If you have a favorite artist that is not represented on our shelves, please feel free to contact me.

Since this chamber music group derived its name from the brightest star of the Scorpius constellation, its musical goal is to foster change and search for new concepts and meanings to old formats and works. It strives to play the standards of earlier times along with the novel and unique works of the 20th and 21st centuries. The flexibility and malleability of this ensemble allows it to either add or delete players and span much of the chamber music repertoire. With its innovative interpretation, style and technique, it became the first prize winner of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Friday's performance features Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Trio in E-flat, James Matheson's Anatomy of Melanchony, Mason Bates' Red River, Bela Bartok's Contrasts and James Matheson's Buzz. The works of James Matheson, a 2000 Guggenheim Foundation fellowship recipient, have been played by the Chicago, Seattle, and Albany Symphonies, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at the Aspen, Santa Fe and Spoleto music festivals.

He displayed a virtuoustic piano technique marked by intense musicianship; his repertory consisted of his own works and many of the standard pieces by Beethoven, Borodin, Chopin, Debussy, Grieg, Liszt, etc.
He utilized his own abilities and performing skills to write challenging music that explored the full potential and eloquent possibilities of the instrument.

As a young, conservatory student, he published a set of five piano pieces which included the popular Prelude in C-sharp minor. His one act opera Aleko was accepted for performance by the Bolshoi Theater on May 9, 1893. Unfortunately, his first symphony did not receive the acclaim that he sought, and he experienced violent depressions. Eventually he overcame his dejection and inertia and achieved success in the performance of his Piano Concerto #2 with the Moscow Philharmonic on October 27, 1901. He conducted opera at the Moscow Grand Theater while maintaining an active composing and piano recital schedule.

He left Russia in December 1917 and eventually settled in the United States. He celebrated the 30th anniversary of his American debut in 1939 with a three concert set in Philadelphia in which he appeared as composer, conductor and pianist in his three concertos. Although he tried to do a farewell tour in February 1943, he grew frailer and died shortly thereafter.

For further study of Rachmaninoff, the Library has Sergei Bertenson's Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music, Geoffrey Norris' Rakhmaninov and Robert Rimm's The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and The Eight. His numerous compact discs may be checked out from the Audio-Visual Department.