String Quartet No. 4 (1970). Alan Hovhaness /*****/

Creeping starism...

1. Paint the Silence. South.
2. String Quartet No. 4. Adagio Ma No Troppo. Alan Hovhaness. Shanghai Quartet.
3. El Salon Mexico. Aaron Copland (arranged for piano by Leonard Bernstein). Eugenie Russo.
4. The Cat. Jimmy Smith. Kudos to my recently deceased Oklahoma grandmother-in-law. Who knew she had such jazz tastes?
5. Yellow. Petra Haden and Bill Frisell. A Coldplay song by real musicians.
6. Sonntag. Alexander Hacke. From a recent The Wire CD.
7. The Duel. Dexter Gordon. Boldface or italicize?
8. Piano Sonata Op. 26: Adagio mesto. Samuel Barber. Emanuele Arciuli. 1999 CD of the Year?
9. Piano Sonata Op. 26: Fuga-Allegro con spirito. Samuel Barber. Emanuele Arciuli. Did I mention how good the CD is?
10. Salvese Quien Pueda: Juana's Epic Re-Version (Edit). Juana Molina. From the same The Wire CD.
11. I Loves You, Porgy. Sun Ra.
12. Concerto in D minor: Andante. Vivaldi. Guillou. For organ. What's up with his "new" work?
13. Arias, Interludes And Inventions (5). Robert Moran. Jayne West, Soprano / Piano Circus Band. Not enough attention on Robert Moran.
14. M'bifé (Balafon). Amadou & Miriam Mariam. New album.
15. Artistiya. Amadou & Miriam Mariam. Did I mention they have a new album out?
16. Arias, Interludes And Inventions (2). Robert Moran. Jayne West, Soprano / Piano Circus Band. Did I mention Moran deserves more attention?

The most American aworks post is here, inspired by the music of Alan Hovhaness. Since then, I don't really have any major new thoughts on religion, the Amish, Alan Hovhaness, Hoosier mores, or American Muslims. I can say I'm much more aware of China (Hi Norman. Hi Wayne) and I do sometimes wonder if after A Love Supreme, John Coltrane practiced nihlism.

In 1970 according to Wikipedia, Charles Wuorinen, at age 32, won the Pulitzer Prize, Davy Jones left the Monkees, Randy Bachman started Bachman Turner Overdive Overdrive and Black Sabbath released Black Sabbath. I was probably listening to Chicago's 25 or 6 to 4, If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot and/or Santana's Black Magic Woman. By this time, I knew who Ferde Grofe was (Hi Mrs. Merrill). I remember buying the singles Venus by Shocking Blue and Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin. I also vaguely remember Bobby Sherman. George Crumb wrote Ancient Voices of Children and Ligeti wrote Continuum but it took me another twenty years before I "grokked" contemporary classical music. Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and Beck were all born in 1970 and Slim Harpo, Earl Hooker, Janice Joplin, George Szell, and Jimi Hendrix all died. That year, I saw Scrooge at a matinee with my mom, but didn't like it because of all the singing (Hi Mom). I've since seen The Aristocats, released in 1970.  For geeks, the Unix epoch began January 1, 1970 (Hi Shawn and ...). I do remember being in a bookstore hearing about the problem with Apollo 13 (Hi Tom Hanks). I also remember the Ford Pinto although I never saw one explode...

Update: Reading this 1970s nostalgia trip one day later, it amazes me how ephemeral popular culture really is.

Comments

[Trevor Murphy]

I completely agree about attention for Robert Moran- I tracked down most of his stuff on the Argo label from the early '90s. If Michael Nyman's work found attention in the mainstream, Moran can too.