aworks :: "new" american classical music

California Dreamin' (1965). John and Michelle Phillips /worth at least 20 cents/

lala has good support for the cover versions "use case."

For example, of the tracks of California Dreamin' by Nancy Sinatra, George Benson, the Carpenters, the Four Tops, Queen Latifah (!), Lionel Hampton, and the Beach Boys (!), after extensive (and free) listening, I could imagine under the right circumstances listening again to the Hampton and Four Tops versions. Specially, I could imagine enough that I was willing to spend .20 to create a streamable playlist:

California Dreamin'

wikipedia: According to John Phillips in a Bravo documentary, and Michelle Phillips in an NPR piece, the song was written in 1963 while they were living in New York. He dreamed about the song and woke her up to help him write. At the time, the Phillipses were members of the folk group The New Journeymen which evolved into The Mamas & the Papas.

aworks project :: lala snooping

 

RVW via Wikipedia

I'm always interested in what people actually listen to (versus what they talk about). I'm also interested in finding new classical music (of course). So my new mini-project, facilitated by the improved lala, is to snoop on some of the 80 or so lala listeners who have listened to more classical music on the service than I have. The method is simple; I click on the user, I click on their classical "Top Genre" listens, and then on the play button to stream what they have already listened to, starting from those tracks most frequently heard. I won't name the listeners -- they deserve some privacy -- but I will try to comment on what I hear, assuming in some cases I can tolerate the music long enough to think about it...

Listener A: The first track is a choral arrangement of Pachebel's Canon. Ok, quickly skipping ahead, there is a string quartet arrangement of the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It's surprising how popular string arrangements of this sort are on lala. In fact, if you look at my most listened to track, it's the Vitamin String Quartet playing Filter's Hey Man, Nice Shot. I would have never paid for a full CD of this kind of fare but at ten cents, why not?

B: First up from the listener, A Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughn Williams. I had an infatuation with his music a decade ago so this is ok. There's also something called In the Fen Country, but since the composer's name is not listed on the track, I can only assume RVW again. Next, the interesting new vocal recording of Terry Riley's In C, by Paul Hillier. On the album page, the composer's name is obvious this time but it takes good eyesight to actually see the artist's. I'm adding Listener B to my "following" list.

C: The next listener's most popular genres are classical, hip-hop and R&B. (For the record, mine have been tallied as classical, jazz, and alternative). The top classical plays are traditional -- Stokowsky and Beethoven conducting Bach, Carmen etc. It's hard not to like the Bach.

D: All vocal music by Gabriel Faure. Next.

E: The most popular artists are Yann Tiersen, Max Richter, and Beyoncé. I've run across several other Richter listeners here. And the most played are nine Richter tracks plus Beethoven. This is a follow.

F: This listener's list is all Bach. Bach is good but so is variety.

G: This listener's popular genres are classical, soundtrack, and metal. The only classical album appears to be Les Miserables. I was hoping the metal might lead to Glenn Branca or something. Except for Riley and Richter, composers I already knew, this project is failing on the contemporary front. It's easy to forget how niche my interests can be, the Vitamin String Quartet not withstanding.

H: This person listens to electronic, praise and worship, and classical. For the latter, this translates into Chopin, Liszt and Bach. I can respect that.

I: On this list are Alan Jackson, Beethoven, and Chopin. One of those three doesn't really belong in the set but again, I'm sure there is a reason.

Ok, time to wind down this project as I've heard enough Bach and Beethoven for one day.

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Update: Actually, listening to more Bach today is surprisingly satisfying.