Summer Music (1956). Samuel Barber /cool refreshment/

I used to always pleasantly associate the music of Mozart with hot summer weather --something about being genteel and relaxed, maybe in an aristocratic way. Think the summer holiday scene in Stephen Frear's Dangerous Liasons )complete with a cast of Close, Thurman, Malkovich, and Pfeiffer).

Samuel Barber's woodwind quintet Summer Music is the American proxy for this feeling. But times (and tastes) change. This week, I found comfort from this week's heat wave in the jazz of Miles Davis' Pharoah's Dance and Frank Lowe's In Trane's Name. There's something otherworldly and soothing about both, in a frantic, woodwind-ish kind of way.

And speaking of summer escape, I'm still immersed in my Radiohead listening project. The band is clearly talented if a bit disjointed and I haven't come to terms with Thom Yorke's voice and I still haven't heard Pablo Honey yet (the only version of Creep I own is the Edmund Welles bass clarinet rendition), Still, I'm surprised at the overall quality of the body of their work. Not a single dud song, so far.

I'm also reading a Radiohead biography by Marc Randall. Some relevant notes follow.

First, their later music emphasized timbre over melody, which is part of the appeal for me. And on Kid A, Jonny Greenwood played the ondes martenot, famously used in the music of French composer Olivier Messiaen. A quote from the Alex Ross article on Radiohead is used in the book:

I heard the 'Turangalîla Symphony' when I was fifteen," Jonny [Greenwood] went on, "and I became round-the-bend obsessed with it. I wish I could have met him or shaken his hand.

Let me remember. Do I own three or or is it four CDs of Messiaen's symphony?

Randall also writes about the influence of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, specifically the use of a Fender Rhodes electric piano also found on the OK Computer album. This time, Thom Yorke comments:

We're just obsessed by Bitches Brew or anything even vaguely like it. That's a record for the end of the world.

Back in my "thin" days, I was also captivated by the album (and am again).

As more inspiration, in this case with the string arrangements on Fake Plastic Trees, the producer of the album The Bends mentions Greenwood's awareness of Samuel Barber, although only the remnants of the string parts remain in the final recording. Yet the song captures a mood. Barber's Adagio for Strings aworks posts ad infinitum here.

I'm not yet far enough in the book where jazzman Charles Mingus' impact on Radiohead is presumably mentioned. But I'm starting to realize the pattern of how Radiohead effectively absorbs others' musical art for their own creative purposes. They don't have the virtuosity or "chops" of the jazz or classical originals but since Radiohead is "just" a band playing songs, that doesn't really matter.

Finally, even though I enjoy and respect classical musician Christopher O'Riley, his piano versions of Radiohead leave me flat. Maybe a bias for timbre is rock's greatest achievement?

frank oteri on porous boundaries. heather heise on not black and white. dave winer on why we are spoiled in the bay area

Comments

[syntax]

hey, i saw your link in my wordpress dashboard. i like your take on the "friday random ten" concept. in fact, i like your random ten better than my last few entries. :)

i have to say that yours is probably one of the most interesting and informative music blogs i've seen, and quite possibly the only one anywhere that mentioned samuel barber and radiohead in the same entry.

cheers!

[M. Keiser]

maybe not greatest acheivement, but certainly important.

Have you heard Sail to the moon yet? thats a great piece.

and summer music is my favorite work from the early post-war period. I say masterpiece, but whatever.

[Spencer]

Timbre and effects are key. There's a reason why Radiohead often play dub reggae before and after their concerts.

Yes, Christopher O'Riley's versions are absurd, and that's a big reason why; he attempts to make up for the lack of electronic timbral quality with lots of "shimmery" arpeggios a la Nyman's The Piano. Meanwhile, have you heard Brad Mehldau's "Paranoid Android"? Good piano jazz version. Produced by Jon Brion.

Agreed with M. Keiser on "Sail to the Moon;" not only does it not skimp on the sonic elements, it's got a lovely tune.

[Davei]

The first time I heard Turangalila I was sick in bed with the flu. It was my first year in Massachusetts, and I was listening to the WGBH fund raiser. They were playing archived concert recording of the BSO, and someone requested the BSO/Ozawa performance of the Messiaen. I was knocked out, wowed, overwhelmed. It must have been from a performance from before 1976, but I don't know exactly when.

[Parker Catalano]

Radiohead fucking rules. It's great to see that some bands are still drawing their main influences from the right places. When a guitarist gains his/her passion from classical roots, you know you've got a winner. This much can be said about Johnny Greenwood as well as much more. And Thom recognizing Miles just goes to show why the vocals in his solo album are the shit.