The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Conservative Republican presidential candidate and Evangelical Christian Ted Cruz wants to ban the tritone – or Devil’s chord – from classical music. NOT. Then again, maybe he does
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By Jacob Stockinger
Today is the first day when you can vote early via absentee ballot for the presidential primary election in Wisconsin on Tuesday, April 5, when you can also vote to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court.
And tomorrow, Tuesday, brings more presidential primaries for both Republicans and Democrats in the Western states of Arizona and Utah. Plus, there will also be Democratic caucuses in Idaho.
So the following political piece — a pseudo-news report — seems timely and appropriate, especially given the drive by establishment Republicans to rally and choose the ultra-conservative U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas (below) as a way to stop New York City businessman Donald Trump.
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the Defending the American Dream summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
Sure, it’s a satire.
But it is a very well done satire — about something that was indeed banned in the Renaissance and Baroque eras by the Roman Catholic Church.
But like so much satire, it is fun that also cuts close to the bone and contains more than a grain of truth about Cruz and about his many “first day on the job” promises if he gets elected president.
Cruz, the son of an evangelical minister, is such a devout and intolerant Christian fundamentalist, it is almost as if he is waging his own jihad, much like the Islamic terrorist state ISIS, on any culture he considers unChristian and heretical to his personal faith and what he considers to be the inerrant and literal truth of the Bible.
Hmm. Does that qualify him as an extremist or radical?
To The Ear, what is really and truly scary is Cruz — not the music.
And it is hard to say who is more threatening as a potential president: Donald Trump or Ted Cruz?
Well, make up your own mind, fellow music-lovers.
Here is the satire from submediant.com. It’s a good read with lots of details, specific composers and food for thought.
http://www.submediant.com/2016/03/15/citing-evangelical-faith-ted-cruz-calls-to-ban-satanic-tritone/
And here is a YouTube lesson in music theory that offers an explanation with examples of the Satanic tritone:
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Classical music: Meet Zuhal Sultan, the founder of the Iraqi Youth Orchestra
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By Jacob Stockinger
Wouldn’t it be nice for a change to hear good news from Iraq?
Usually we hear about sectarian violence, suicide bombings and widespread government corruption.
So for a change of pace, meet Zuhal Sultan (below), the woman who founded the Iraqi Youth Orchestra.
Her words remind us of what must have been in the mind of Marvin Rabin when he founded the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Sultan’s words about the importance of music education and music performance have meaning not only to Iraq and other nations at war but also to us.
Not that she and the Iraqi Youth Orchestra (below) don’t continue to face major obstacles, especially from The Islamic State (or ISIS or ISIL) as they were preparing for a tour. (You can hear the orchestra during a festival in Scotland in a YouTube video at the bottom. Be sure to check out the comments by readers and listeners as wells by Zuhal Sultan.)
But NPR, or National Public Radio, has done a public service by offering us a fine interview with her, by showing harmony amid conflict.
Here is a link to the story done by the reporter and new host of “All Things Considered” Ari Shapiro. You can read the set up piece, but you a should also listen to the audio:
Tags: All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro, Arts, Baghdad, Bomber, bombing, Cello, Classical music, festival, harmony, Iraq, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, Music, NPR, Orchestra, Scotland, Suicide attack, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, WYSO, YouTube
Classical music: Remember the Cellist of Sarajevo from 23 years ago? Now there is a Cellist of Baghdad. Read or hear all about him on NPR.
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By Jacob Stockinger
How music persists and endures in even the hardest and bloodiest and most unlikely of circumstances!
Perhaps you remember that during the Balkan wars, when Serbian snipers threatened daily life in Sarajevo, there was Vedran Smailovic (below), better known as the Cellist of Sarajevo, who defied the killers and resisted terror with beauty.
Now in the midst of the chaos created by religious conflict and the barbarism of ISIS comes The Baghdad Cellist. If you listen to the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear him playing — and it seems to be music, an excerpt from the solo suites for cello, by Johann Sebastian Bach, perhaps the most universal of composers.
And why the cello in both cases? Perhaps, The Ear thinks, because it so approximates the human voice and seems a perfect stand-in for a human being in such inhuman situations. What do you think?
Read or hear about Karim Wasfi, the extraordinarily brave professional musician who performs at the sites of terrorist car bombings and who was recently featured on NPR or National Public Radio:
http://www.npr.org/2015/06/08/412284066/amid-violence-in-baghdad-a-musician-creates-a-one-man-vigil
Tags: Arts, Bach, Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, Baghdad, Balkan Wars, Baroque, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnians, Cellist of Baghdad, Cellist of Sarajevo, Cello, Classical music, DASH, Iraq, Iraq war, ISIL, ISIS, Islam, Islamic State, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Karim Wasfi, Madison, NPR, Sarajevo, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Suite, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: Today is Veterans Day in the U.S. and this week brings Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth nations including Great Britain, Canada and Australia. To honor veterans -– both military and civilian — The Ear plays the “Nimrod” section from Sir Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations.” What music would you play?
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ALERT: On this Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. in Mills Hall, the UW-Madison Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of UW-Madison professor Javier Calderon, will give a FREE concert of music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Gilbert Bibarian and others.
By Jacob Stockinger
He may be wrong, but The Ear does not think that Veterans Day — and Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth nations of the former British Empire — is just about war. And there is plenty of music one could play that aims to depict war and conflict.
But Veterans Day -– which was originally Armistice Day and was intended to mark the end of that vicious meat-grinder World War I that started 100 years ago this year and officially ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 –- is more about people and loss. So is Remembrance Day.
Given the way “total war” has evolved and been waged since World War I — just look at the Middle East and ISIS these days — one has to wonder: Shouldn’t civilians, including women and children, also be honored? When war is waged, usually all suffer and all sacrifice.
Not that the armed forces don’t come at the head of the line and hold a special place in our thoughts.
But these days a Requiem for All seems fit and appropriate.
That is why The Ear can’t think of a more moving and quietly appropriate piece of music than the “Nimrod” section from the Edwardian era British composer Sir Edward Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations.
That is probably why the prize-winning and popular documentary filmmaker Ken Burns also used the same music, arranged for solo piano, in his 2007 epic film about World War II called, simply, ‘The War.”
Here it is, played by conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a popular YouTube with more than 2.5 million hits — as a salute to all those who suffered and who served:
Tags: A World Requiem, armed forces, Arts, Australia, Canada, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, children, civilians, classical guitar, Classical music, Commonwealth, Commonwealth of Nations, Daniel Barenboim, documentary, Edward Elgar, England, Enigma Variations, film, First World War, Great Britain, guitar, Heitor Villa-Lobos, ISIS, Jacob Stockinger, Javier Calderon, Ken Burns, Kenneth Burns, Madison, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Middle East, Music, Orchestra, Remembrance Day, Remembrance Sunday, Second World War, soldiers, The War, total war, United States, Veterans Day, Villa-Lobos, women, World War I, World War II, YouTube
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