Arachnophonia: Black Noise

Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about items in the Parsons Music Library‘s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by Joanna Love, PhD, Assistant Professor of Music in the UR Music Department. Thanks, Joanna!

Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Tricia Rose

Black Noise

Tricia Rose’s Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America is a foundational piece of scholarship on hip hop culture. Written in the mid-1990s, it explores the complex economic, social, and cultural origins of hip hop. It also discusses the social and cultural implications of its many facets and prominent features, including rapping, DJing, B Boying/breaking, signifying, scratching, and sampling. Anyone interested in learning more about this genre should definitely read this book.

Arachnophonia: Gustav Holst – “Beni Mora”

Editor’s note: Welcome to the first “Arachnophonia” column of the 2017-2018 academic year. Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about items in the Parsons Music Library‘s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.

As your friendly neighborhood blog editor/Music Library Associate, I thought I would kick things off for this academic year with a post in honor of British composer Gustav Holst‘s 143rd birthday.

Gustav Holst

“Beni Mora” (Op. 29, No. 1 1909-1910)

Today (September 21st) marks the 143rd birthday of British composer Gustav Holst. Holst was born in Cheltenham, England on this day in 1874. Today he is probably best known for his orchestral suite The Planets but he wrote many other works for orchestra as well as works for concert band, choral works, chamber music, operas and stage works. So, I thought I’d focus on one of my favorite pieces of his that is not quite as well known, “Beni Mora“. This piece is available as streaming audio in the library collections and is available for UR students, faculty and staff to access on campus.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

Beni Mora” was inspired by a vacation trip Holst made to Algeria in 1908. In letters home to his wife, he called Algeria a mix of East and West where mosques and hijab wearing women were juxtaposed with advertisements for American cinematography (source: GustavHolst.info). He even went so far as to go bicycling in the Algerian portion of the Sahara desert — quite a vacation!

Photo (postcard?) Algeria circa 1908

A photo of an Algerian street scene circa 1908

There was a fascination with “the orient” as a broad concept (literally broad stretching from North Africa to India to Japan) in Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which led to a bit of an artistic fad for “Orientalsm” across various artistic media with varying success.

Orientalism in Action

I’m not sure how someone actually from Algeria would feel about this “cigar box” type portrayal from the early 20th century

The work premiered in 1912 and definitely reflects a mixture of East and West there is definitely a westernized sense of the “Oriental” evident, but not in a way that feels disrespectful of the culture that inspired it.

Working manuscript in Holst's handwriting from "Beni Mora"

A snippet of a working manuscript in Holst’s handwriting.

Beni Mora” consists of three movements – two dances and a finale subtitled “In the Street of Ouled Nails”.
The first dance starts off with a languid, almost cinematic feel — winds blowing across lonesome sand dunes are definitely evoked to my Western ear and builds to a louder, bigger feeling section that sounds to me like a lost outtake from the soundtrack to Lawrence Of Arabia (which of course was written much later!).
The second movement starts with an interesting syncopated percussion motif and makes use of orchestral tone color, having various melodic lines thread through different sections of the orchestra and groupings of instruments.
The third movement was directly inspired by a repetitive flute tune that Holst overhead during his Algerian travels. This 8 note flute melody becomes the hypnotic basis for this movement and is repeated many times while other harmonies, instruments and musical themes swirl in and amongst and around the repeating flute motif in a manner that suggests the changing scene as people come and go on their daily business on an Algerian street and also help keep the motif interesting. Some music critics have even referred to this movement as “proto” minimalist because of the 163 plus repetitions of that flute motif.

Frederick Arthur Bridgman - "A Street Scene In Algeria"

Frederick Arthur Bridgman (American, 1847-1928), “A Street Scene in Algeria”, oil on canvas

I first discovered “Beni Mora” in 2003 when I was living in Cheltenham while working at the Holst Birthplace Museum and fell in love with its blend of exoticism and romanticism that causes it to sound like a miniature film score. This feels like something that really would fit right in on a film soundtrack from a 1930s or 40s serial (or an Indiana Jones movie), which also appeals to me. I admire Holst’s curiosity about other cultures as evidenced in his incorporation of his Algerian vacation experience and musical style (as he perceived it) into this musical travelogue.

(Fun fact: Holst was also fascinated by the culture of the Indian subcontinent and wrote choral works and chamber operas exploring myths and legends of India, even going so far as to teach himself Sanskrit so he could read Hindu texts in their original language! Yay cultural curiosity!)

CD streaming

Of course, one should also listen to “The Planets” (it’s very famous and beloved for a reason), but I think “Beni Mora” provides a great way to delve further into the output of an early 20th century composer whose total output is well worth exploring! (Especially since the Music Library has a version that can be streamed — access is a wonderful thing!)

Holst Statue

Statue honoring Gustav Holst in his hometown of Cheltenham, England

New CDs added in August!

New CDs for August 2017

Chamber Music, Concertos and Orchestral Music

Frederic Chopin – Paul Badura-Skoda plays the Chopin Piano Concertos
Aaron Copland and Benjamin Britten – Piano Concertos
Howard Hanson – Symphonies Nos. 3 & 6 and Fantasy Variations on a Theme of Youth

Jascha Heifetz – Beethoven & Brahms Concertos
Sergiu Luca & Malcom Bilson – Mozart Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin: Late Viennese Sonatas

Gwendolyn Mok – The Composer’s Piano: Brhams Late Piano Works Op. 116-119
Jean-Philippe Rameau – Piece de Clavecin en Concert
Ralph Vaughan Williams – Concerto in C for Two Pianos; Job: A Masque For Dancing
Manuela Wiesler & Julian Jacobson – Schubert*Reinecke*Boehm

Band Music

Frederick Fennell – Screamers (Circus Marches)
Johan Willem Friso Military Band – Alliance of the Free
Jack Stamp – Cloudsplitter
U.S. Marine Band – Picture Studies

Popular Music

Betty – Carnival
Betty – Limboland
Betty – Snowbiz
The Human League – Dare!

Humor/Parody

The Capitol Steps – Obama Mia!
The Capitol Steps – Take The Money and Run for President

Musicals & Film Soundtracks

Irving Berlin – Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun: The New Broadway Cast Recording
Laurence O’Keefe – Bat Boy : The Musical
Jule Styne – Bells Are Ringing
Betty – Betty Rules
Galt MacDermot & Bill Dumaresq – The Human Comedy: A Modern Opera

Frank Wildhorn – Jekyll & Hyde : The Musical
Various Artists – Repo Man: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Marvin Hamlisch – Sweet Smell of Success
Boy George – Taboo: Original London Cast
Boy George – Taboo: Original Broadway Cast
Jeanine Tesori – Thoroughly Modern Millie
Michael John LaChiusa – The Wild Party

Folk / World Music

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy – One