Westport Public Library MOVIE & MUSIC Blog

While teaching in New York in the late 1960's through early 1970's, he explored, performed and wrote piano rags and was a major figure of the ragtime revival. With mezzo-soprano Joan Morris, he examined and researched cabaret, popular and music hall songs dating from the 1890s through the 1930s, and gained new audiences for them in concert and on records. He began to teach at the University of Michigan in 1973 and became the Ross Lee Finney Distinguished University Professor of Composition in the fall of 1994. In 1988, he won the Pulitzer Prize in music for 12 New Etudes for Piano. He was the recipient of four Grammy Awards for his setting of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 2005.

His colleague and fellow composer John Corigliano paid him the highest compliment in the February 24, 2008 New York Times. "He's got such skills, such great compositional techniques. Music flows out of him the way it flowed from Mozart."

The Library invites you to judge his music for yourself with his A View from the Bridge, Session I and Symphony #4 and Songs.

Just in are two very different books that capture film history. A Short History of Film by Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster is just that, a historical overview of film through the lens of history. The authors are both film historians at the University of Nebraska and offer the reader a crash course through major film movements while highlighting the key directors and studios associated with each. They examine both American and International films and genres. Of particular note is the attention paid to women and minority filmmakers. If you enjoy the wide range of films available in the library’s collection, this book will surely entertain you as well.

The library has also recently added Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard by Richard Brody. The author is an editor and film critic for The New Yorker. In its starred review, Publishers Weekly offered the following, “Brody offers the significant events and achievements of the cinematic innovator who combined an eye-opening concoction of art, politics, music, personal values and social mores.” The library has an extensive collection of the director’s works available for loan.

Congratulations to Fairfield County's own American Chamber Orchestra as they celebrate their fifth year as a performing organization. You may recognize these musicians as they may be your neighbors, acquaintances, community leaders or co-workers. The orchestra is marking this event with a concert on Saturday, May 31, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Fairfield. The featured works include the Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla by Mikhail Glinka, Violin Concerto in D major by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky with soloist Maria Conti and Symphony #2 in D major by Johannes Brahms.

Music Director Christopher James Hisey is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he studied conducting with Donald Hunsberger and David Efron, and Bowling Green University, where he completed his Masters Degree in Conducting under Emily Freeman Brown. His international appearances with various orchestras include the Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Klassika Symphony, formerly the Leningrad State Philharmonic. He is Music Director of the Civic Orchestra of New Haven, the Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra and the 2008 Troupers Light Opera production of Yeoman of the Guard and a string teacher at Greens Farms Academy and the Westport School of Music.

Maria Conti received her Master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and is an established freelance violinist in the Tri-state area. She serves as assistant concertmaster of the Norwalk Symphony, acting assistant concertmaster of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, assistant principal second of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, assistant concertmaster of Camerata New York and is a member of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic first violin section. She is an active chamber music player with the Axis Quintet (string quartet and guitar) and the chamber group Musicora, which blends the sounds of violin, cello, classical guitar, piano, and voice.

The Westport Public Library invites you to check out these musical works either before or after the concert. For further reading about the composers, you may try Jan Swafford's Johannes Brahms: A Biography and David Brown's Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music.

With a glorious three day weekend beckoning us, you may be looking for interesting, inexpensive activities to share with your family and friends. The New York Philharmonic is presenting its 17th Memorial Day free concert at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City on Monday, May 26, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. What a wonderful way for a parent or grandparent to introduce classical music to a child. The program features user-friendly pieces with nineteenth century composers Franz Schubert and his Symphony #8 "Unfinished" as well as Felix Mendelssohn and his Symphony #4 "Italian". These orchestral works with their captivating melodies, evocative moments, pleasing harmonies and uplifting nuances will appeal to both novices and connoisseurs.

If you feel awkward attending this type of event and want to learn the correct etiquette, Valerie Cruice's When Do I Clap? may be consulted. A humorous, informative guide for the classical neophyte is David Pogue and Scott Speck's Classical Music for Dummies. If you prefer a serious exposition, Michael Steinberg and Larry Rothe's For the Love of Music may provide the answers to your queries.

George Lucas had barely turned 17 when on May 25, 1961 John Kennedy boldly began the race to the moon, challenging America to send a man there by the end of the decade. On the same day in May in 1977, Lucas did better than that. He sent movie goers to a “galaxy far far away” beginning his saga at the end when Star Wars opened.

Movies have a long history of loving outer space. My Dad told stories of sneaking into the movie theater as an adolescent to watch Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon several times. (Apparently in those depression days, ushers were known to leave the back door just slightly ajar for the local boys.)

Of course, TV producers got into the act as well. Lost in Space and the many Star Trex derivative series and films that followed remain popular items in our collection.

So here’s wishing a happy anniversary to George Lucas. After all, the success of that film paved the way for the financing of the Indiana Jones series. Coincidence, I think not. This week Harrison Ford is back in action and I know how I'll spend part of my weekend.

The Claremont Trio, comprised of violinist Emily Bruskin, cellist Julia Bruskin and pianist Donna Kwong, began their career by winning the 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and were the first recipients of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award. This summer they will be performing at the Bard Music Festival, Mostly Mozart, the Chappaquiddick Summer Music Festival, Saratoga Chamber Music Festival and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. They embrace the standard repertoire as well as the challenges of contemporary music. They commissioned Mr. Bates' 2002 piece, String Band.

Mr. Bates, the winner of the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and the Berlin Prize, successfully navigates between the classical, electronic and theatrical musical worlds. He studied at the Columbia-Juilliard program with such notables as John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, and Samuael Adler. In the fall of 2007, he began a three year commitment wit the California Symphony as its Young American Composer in Residence. His recent premieres include Liquid Interface, Digital Loom, Rusty Air in Carolina and Omnivorous Furniture.

The Claremont Trio's concert includes Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Trio in G Major, Op, 1 No. 2, Mason Bates, String Band and Johannes Brahms's Piano Trio in C Major Op. 87.

If you are studying to become a contestant on Jeopardy, enjoy regaling your friends with your fund of trivial knowledge, and are tired of memorizing the Time Almanac or World Book Encyclopedia, I have another source to suggest. Musical AKAs: Assumed Names and Sobriquets of Composers, Songwriters, Librettists, Lyricists, Hymnists, and Writers on Music by Jeanette Marie Drone is an index to over 15,000 assumed identities of over 9,000 composers, librettists, lyricists and songwriters. The author has combed through biographical dictionaries, encyclopedias, individual biographies, journal articles, websites, etc. to ascertain all of the legal name changes, nicknames and pseudonyms and has provided the corroborating bibliographic citations.

Here are some fun ones:

Gene Autry America's Number One Singing Cowboy

John Coltrane Blue Train

Amy Grant Madonna of Gospel Music

Charles Edward Ives American Father of Musical Modernism

Michael Jackson King of Pop

Audrey Lynn Little Organ Annie

Jim Morrison Lizard King

William Smith The Lion

Stephen Sondheim Broadway's Brightest Hope

John Philip Sousa The March King

In these trying and uncertain times, the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra is affirming man's goodness and resilience through the program entitled "The Triumph of the Common Man." Conductor Diane Wittry has chosen Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Giuseppe Verdi's Overture to La Forza del Destino and Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony #9 as exemplars of music history that were inspired by ordinary people. This concert will take place on Saturday, May 17 at 8:00 p.m. at the Norwalk Concert Hall. A special abbreviated version of it for families with young children will occur on Sunday, May 18, at 3:00 p.m. with an examination of the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Beethoven revolutionized the symphonic format by including singers in his magisterial work. Vocal soloists, Kathleen Ann Theisen, Barbara Rearick, Scott Murphree and Thomas Woodman and the Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut will join forces with the symphony for this piece. A particularly engaging book on this work is Esteban Buch's Beethoven's Ninth : A Political History.

To whet your appetite, be sure to stop off at the Library to get recordings of these pieces. If Ms. Wittry's pre-concert lecture coupled with the music makes you ponder on the nature of man, the Library suggests Rene Huyghe's Art and the Spirit of Man, Hugh Prather's Spiritual Notes to Myself and Adin Steinsaltz's Simple Words.

Happy Mother’s Day! My family tells me we’ll celebrate by going … where else but… the movies. But if you’d rather stay home and share the day with some Moms made famous by a movie, here are some staff suggestions.

The weather forecast is for dark and dreary, so with that in mind how about some scary Mamas. Who can forget Mrs. Bates in Psycho? Sure she’s dead. But talk about guilt having a long life line. Piper Laurie as Margaret White in Carrie brings new meaning to the term controlling. And, Kathleen Turner as Beverly Sutphin is the ultimate Soccer Mom in Serial Mom. Come to think of it, Sam Waterson, who played her husband in this film now prosecutes women just like her on Law & Order.

Of course there are Mothers who sacrifice for their daughters and sometimes suffer for it. Barbara Stanwyck as Stella Davis comes to mind, as does Louise Beaver’s performance in Imitation of Life. More modern classics include Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias and Mermaids. All require a nice big box of tissues by your side.

I'm not quite sure how to characterize Edna Turnblad as played by first Devine and later John Travolta in versions of Hairspray. And Cher as the hard living, flawed Mother in Mask stands as one of my favorite performance.

His first music teacher was his father, a jack-of-all trades musician who played in dance halls, taverns and military bands. His serious study of piano began at age seven with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel; he quickly advanced to the tutelage of the famous Hamburg pianist and composer Eduard Marxsen, who conveyed to his young pupil a love and knowledge of the music of Bach and the Viennese Classical composers.

In 1843, he performed an etude by Henri Herz and joined a chamber group in a Mozart piano quartet and in Beethoven's Wind Quintet op.16. On September 21, 1848, he gave his first solo recital which included a Bach fugue; his next solo outing occurred the following year where he played the Waldstein Sonata of Beethoven and his own pieces. By this time, he was earning a living by teaching piano, playing popular music for private parties, accompanying theatrical plays, and arranging music. His early compositions were for voice and solo piano; throughout his life, he proved to be his harshest critic. He worked with and knew the musical giants of his time including Hector Berlioz, Joseph Joachim, Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner, etc.

The Library has numerous recordings of his music. For further biographical insights, please feel free to consult Hans Gal's Johannes Brahms: His Work and Personality and Jan Swafford's Johannes Brahms: A Biography. For an analytic discussion of his musical writings, the library offers Leon Botstein's The Compleat Brahms: A Guide to the Musical Works of Johannes Brahms and Bernard Jacobson's The Music of Johannes Brahms. If you just want to savor his piano music, Denis Matthews' Brahms Piano Music may be sampled.

Today is the Mexican national holiday commemorating the victorious Battle of Puebla on May 5,1862. Under General Ignacio Zaragoza, Mexican troops defeated the French army of Napoleon III and proved to the world that they could unite and defend themselves from foreign intervention. This anniversary is observed by Mexicans everywhere with dances, songs, parades and parties.

Here are a few suggestions of musical works for celebrating this occasion:

Chanticleer. Mexican Baroque: Music from New Spain

Chavez, Carlos. Complete Symphonies

Copland, Aaron. El Salon Mexico

Gauk, Rachel. Histoire du Tango

Hesperion XX. Entremese del Siglo de Oro: Lope de Vega & Su Tiempo 1550-1650

Kronos Quartet. Nuevo

Mariachi Cobre. XXV Anniversario: 1971-1996

Various Artists. Mexican Favorites

"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."

"It was new, and ought to have been rehearsed a little more. For some reason or other the queen had the composer hanged, after dinner."

"I suppose there are two kinds of music--one kind which one feels, just as an oyster might, and another sort which requires a higher faculty, a faculty which must be assisted and developed by teaching. Yet if base music gives us wings, why should we want any other?"

"I dislike the opera because I want to love it and can't."

"I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an enitre opera the result has been the next thing to suicide."

"Whenever I enjoy anything in art it means that it is mighty poor. However, my base instinct does bring me profit sometimes; I was the only man out of 3,200 who got his money back on those operas."