New CDs for February 2020
Concertos and Chamber Music
Black Oak Ensemble – Silenced Voices
Various Artists – Delights & Dances: Music For String Quartet and Orchestra
Popular Music
Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer
Opera, Oratorios and Art Songs
George Benjamin – Lessons in Love and Violence
Julia Wolfe – Fire In My Mouth
Folk Music
Pete Seeger – Pete Seeger: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection
Jazz & Gospel Music
The Blind Boys of Alabama – Down in New Orleans
Arachnophonia : Norah Jones “Come Away With Me”
Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from 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 student worker Emma A. (class of 2021) and features singer/songwriter Norah Jones’ 2002 album Come Away With Me. Thanks, Emma!
One of my favorite albums (and singers) is Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me.This might sound odd, but it’s what I most frequently listen to when cooking or baking — it’s the perfect rainy day music.
Her tone is so soft and sweet and her songs are very melodic. I love that intertwines jazz and blues because it’s hard to find that type of music now. Jones was a lot more popular in the early 2000s — I was first introduced to the album when my mom and dad would play it in our house when I was in elementary school.
She has lots of awards and has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. In the beginning of the 2000s Billboard deemed her the top jazz artist of the decade. She has won nine Grammys and writes her own songs as well as plays the piano.
Norah Jones at Bright Eyes at Town Hall 29 May 2007 (credit: Yaffa)
Come Away With Me is the album that kick started her career and launched many of her songs into popularity. The album is a fusion of jazz with country, blues, folk and pop. It was certified diamond, meaning that it sold over 27 million copies. This album alone was enough to win Jones five Grammys, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist. My personal favorite songs from the album are “Don’t Know Why” and “Shoot the Moon,” but all of the songs are so unique and enjoyable in their own way. I tend to listen to a lot of mainstream pop because it’s always on everywhere and I want to stay up-to-date on all the trending music, however, this is a nice change of pace from that. I think it’s important to listen to a wide range of artists and music, and Norah Jones is the kind of singer that I believe almost everyone would like.
Some other singers that mirror her musical vibe are Diana Krall, Corinne Bailey Rey, Alicia Keys, Adele, and Duffy. I’d say her style is a bit more laid back and the songs aren’t as fit for blasting on the radio, but her songs are written about similar themes and use little auto-tuning or electronics.
Arachnophonia: Dirty Dancing
Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from 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 student worker Gabriela (class of 2020) and features the original soundtrack album for the 1987 film Dirty Dancing. Thanks, Gabi!
With the 92nd Academy Awards freshly behind us, I’ve been thinking about my favorite film soundtracks. For me, a driving factor of what makes a movie memorable or great is its music –either score, soundtrack, or both. I love when I hear a song that I recognize during a scene, which I can dance or sing along to in my seat. On the other hand, I also love when movies introduce me to music. The only reason I loved the songs “Hungry Eyes” and “Be My Baby” so much as a kid was because of the movie Dirty Dancing.
My parents showed me Dirty Dancing at a young age, probably because I was a dancer whose first childhood dream was to be a Broadway star, and it instantly became one of my favorite movies. The soundtrack, which features songs spanning multiple decades, made an already wholesome and fun movie even more enjoyable. Even as a child, I could feel the nostalgia that it portrayed, as it features 50’s and 60’s pop hits like “Love is Strange” and “Stay” that instantly transport the viewer to a summer in 1963. Naturally, a distinctly 80s sound is also incorporated in songs like “She’s Like the Wind” sung by lead actor Patrick Swayze himself, a man of apparently many talents. And of course, many of these songs are used in dance scenes, following Baby and Johnny’s journey from frustrating rehearsals to final performance.
There are many iconic movie scenes that will be forever associated with their respective songs, or vice versa. Think: “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” with Judd Nelson’s fist in the air at the end of The Breakfast Club, or “Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon” in Uma Thurman’s apartment in Pulp Fiction. But undoubtedly one of the most commonly known and referenced music/movie scene pairings is “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” from the final dance scene in Dirty Dancing –with extra emphasis on the achievement of Baby’s lift that happens right as the song climaxes. This is the kind of flawless, emotional moment that makes the right fusion of a scene and a song selection one of my favorite aspects of film. It’s also one of the many moments that made the Dirty Dancing soundtrack go multi-platinum.
Arachnophonia: Rap On Trial
Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from 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 student worker William (class of 2021) and features a new book by UR faculty member Erik Nielson and Andrea L. Dennis of the University of Georgia School of Law entitled Rap On Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America. Thanks, William!
Rap On Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America
by Erik Nielson and Andrea L. Dennis
Five Deeply Concerning Takeaways from UR professor Erik Nielson’s new book Rap On Trial: Race, Lyrics and Guilt in America
In their new book, Rap On Trial: Race, Lyrics and Guilt in America, University of Richmond professor Erik Nielson and Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, Andrea Dennis, rebuke prosecutors’ use of rap lyrics as evidence of a defendant’s guilt in U.S. criminal trials.
In doing so, they document how the U.S. criminal justice system’s policing of hip hop and rap music has evolved, and elucidate the dire consequences and First-Amendment concerns of using rap lyrics to convict and incarcerate young men of color.
Here are five deeply concerning takeaways:
1. Rap lyrics are almost always permitted as evidence to prosecute serious crimes like murder, robbery and drug trafficking
Throughout their research, Nielson and Dennis have identified more than 500 cases across the U.S. in which rap lyrics were used as evidence in a criminal trial. In some cases, the prosecution introduced a defendant’s lyrics as substantiating evidence of the defendant’s guilt in some crime. Other times, the lyrics were the crime.
According to the New Jersey ACLU, rap lyrics were permitted as evidence in 80 percent of cases that considered their admissibility. But Nielson and Dennis say the number, according to their research, is significantly higher.
2. Police and prosecutors target young, black and Latino amateur rappers
In roughly 95 percent of cases involving rap lyrics, the defendant is a young, black or Latino man with a local fan base, if any fan base at all. Because of their social status, amateur rappers, in the eyes of police and prosecutors, are not real artists.
3. Rap lyrics are used to convince jurors of the defendant’s “true character”
By Dennis and Nielson’s analysis, police and prosecutors nationwide interpret and present to jurors rap music as autobiographical. A training manual written by a California prosecutor says that, through music lyrics, prosecutors “can invade and exploit the defendant’s true personality.” The manual tells prosecutors not to be fooled by the defendant’s nice court attire.
“The real defendant is a criminal wearing a do-rag and throwing a gang sign,” according to the manual.
In the hands of prosecutors, rap lyrics are taken out of context and construed as accurate depictions of the defendant’s real life, despite the art form’s well-known tradition of hyperbole. Because of this, defendant’s will often plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence, knowing their lyrics, presented by prosecutors, might significantly bias the jurors.
To introduce lyrics as evidence, prosecutors often argue that the lyrics they wish to introduce are evidence of the defendant’s motive, knowledge or ability to commit the crime in question. If a defendant is being accused of murder, for instance, prosecutors will cherry-pick from the defendant’s rap lyrics the lyrics most evocative of murder, and argue before the jury that the rap lyrics at least prove the defendant is capable of murder.
Prosecutors have used rap lyrics to argue for harsher sentences. Dennis and Nielson have identified thirty cases in which prosecutors used a defendant’s lyrics to argue that the defendant’s “true character,” as exposed in his lyrics, was so beyond any hope of rehabilitation that he should be sentenced to death.
In at least one case, prosecutors used a defendant’s lyrical abilities to argue that he was mentally stable and intelligent enough to be executed.
4. Rap lyrics and videos are used to warrant “gang enhancements”
If prosecutors can show that the crime the defendant is standing trial for was committed on behalf of or in association with a gang, prosecutors can request a “gang enhancement,” which can double a defendant’s sentence. In some states, gang enhancements allow for juveniles to be charged as adults.
Prosecutors regularly use rap lyrics to seek gang enhancements. If a defendant references gang themes in his lyrics, or even just mentions certain neighborhoods, prosecutors will use those rap lyrics to connect the defendant’s crime to gang activity.
Increasingly common is the use of rap music videos to justify gang enhancements. Dennis and Nielson have identified cases in which prosecutors used rap music videos to justify a gang enhancement for defendants who were seen in the background of a music video.
5. “Gang experts” routinely use rap music and videos to surveil entire communities
Nielson and Dennis make clear that, although “Rap On Trial” is focused on the use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials, police and so-called “gang experts” nationwide use hip hop, rap music and videos to surveil communities, to identify suspects and to justify arrests, all before rap enters the courtroom.
Michael Render, also known as “Killer Mike” from the Atlanta, Georgia, hip hop duo “Run The Jewels,” is a close friend of Nielson’s and wrote the foreword to Rap On Trial.
“Right now, aspiring rap artists need to know they are being targeted by the authorities,” Render wrote, “and they need to balance their right to free speech–and their desire to push the envelope of free speech–with the reality that police are watching.”
Arachnophonia: W.A. Mozart “Requiem”
Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from 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 student worker Emma R. (class of 2021) and features a study score edition of Mozart’s Requiem. Thanks, Emma!
What does it mean to compose a piece of music? Is it writing the notes on the page? Is it dictating the general musical idea? Writing the lyrics? What about the problem of orchestrations? If the composition is in the musical idea, can we know what a composer intended the piece to sound like? These kinds of questions can apply to many pieces by composers who do not work completely alone – both contemporary and long-dead. However, when considering a piece such as Mozart’s Requiem, these questions clearly take on greater than typical importance. As is commonly known, Mozart’s Requiem was left unfinished at the time of the composer’s death – a tale highly dramatized throughout the centuries since. But dramatization aside, this leaves serious questions for modern historically aware performers and listeners – questions which are not present when considering most other works. Who really wrote what parts of the Requiem? What did Mozart imagine when he conceived of the work?
Due to the unfinished nature of the work, the autograph does not contain all the answers. Portions of the autograph – the original handwritten version of the piece – are in Mozart’s hand and other portions are not. Significant portions were not completed at all. Orchestrations and – some scholars argue – entire sections, such as a hypothesized intended fugue – are missing. This doesn’t even begin to consider the lack of answers to many performance questions which impact the sound of the piece – articulation markings, dynamics, tempos, and more.
1st page of Mozart’s autograph manuscript of the Requiem
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=853665
Currently, the version completed by Mozart’s student Süßmayr is considered somewhat the standard. However, this is still a decision that must be made prior to every performance of the work, as other versions – completed by Mozart scholars – do exist. I myself am not informed enough about Mozart’s style nor his compositional process to make normative statements about the potential distance between the composer’s likeliest intentions and the accepted completed version today, however scholars such as Friedrich Blume and Nathan Broder have. In their article, “Requiem but No Peace,” these scholars argue, for example, “that flutes, oboes, clarinets, and horns are wholly absent in the complete Requiem is entirely unMozartean and must weaken Süssmeyer’s (sic) credit…” (Blume and Broder 1961, 161). Furthermore, these authors argue that since Mozart tended to compose orchestrations in three rounds – the above mentioned winds in the last round – that the lack of these instruments is more likely due to the unfortunate death of the composer than due to his intentions to leave them out (160).
Can we really say that the Requiem as we hear it performed – perhaps Mozart’s most well-known work today is really written by Mozart? Is the Requiem we know actually what the Mozart Requiem would have sounded like had the composer lived long enough to see it completed?
This study score at the Music Library shows all parts of the accepted Süßmayr completion – including markings which denote portions from the manuscript judged to be in Mozart’s vs Süßmayr’s handwriting. (It’s a miniature score – so it isn’t large and bulky). Take a listen and read along. No matter who wrote it, it really is a marvelous work.
Detail of a portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Johann Nepomuk della Croce – Unknown, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=449108
Arachnophonia: Amanda Maier
Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record(s) for the item(s) in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by Music Librarian Dr. Linda Fairtile and features Amanda Maier, an overlooked woman composer who lived from 1853-1894. Thanks, Dr. Fairtile!
Amanda Maier
Amanda Röntgen-Maier portrait
Bergen Public Library Norway from Bergen, Norway
If you look up Amanda Maier in Grove Music Online, the self-styled “world’s premier online music encyclopedia,” you’ll find that she was the first wife of composer Julius Röntgen, as well as a violinist who studied at the Stockholm Conservatory. But Maier (1853-1894) wasn’t “only” a wife and a violinist; she was also a gifted composer whose music was praised by both Brahms and Grieg. After hearing a recording of Maier’s violin concerto on the radio, I resolved to add the works of this unjustly neglected composer to Parsons Music Library’s collection.
Jennifer Martyn, herself a violinist, has filled in some of Maier’s background. Maier’s performing career essentially ended when she married Julius Röntgen, her violin teacher’s son, but she continued to compose until a few years prior to her tragically early death, from a lung ailment, at the age of forty-one.
Two CDs recently acquired by Parsons Music Library are simply titled Amanda Maier, volumes 1 and 2 (call numbers RM3.1 .M36 2016 and RM3.1 .M36 2017) They are the brainchild of Swedish producer Erik Nilsson, who plans to record all of Maier’s works. Volume 1 contains the first movement of her Violin Concerto in D Minor, performed by violinist Gregory Maytan and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andreas Stoehr (unfortunately, the second and third movements have been lost). Maier’s final work, her Piano Quartet in E Minor, is played by Maytan with Bernt Lysell (viola), Sara Wijk (cello), and Ann-Sofi Klingberg (piano). The Quartet is a profound work, with a dramatic first movement, a lyrical second movement reminiscent of Brahms, a dancelike third movement, and an exuberant finale. Klingberg also accompanies Maytan on the Swedish Tunes and Dances that Maier and her husband composed together.
Volume 2 of Amanda Maier contains her best known work, the passionate Sonata in B Minor for Violin and Piano, here performed by violinist Cecilia Zilliacus and pianist Bengt Forsberg. This duo also plays her Nine Pieces for Violin and Piano, only six of which have ever been published. Maier’s vocal music is represented on this recording by four unpublished songs setting texts by the now-forgotten poet Carl-David af Wirsén. Soprano Sabina Bisholt and pianist Bengt Forsberg perform these rather melancholy pieces.
Parsons Music Library will soon have three other CDs of Amanda Maier’s music (Amanda Maier, vol. 3, Amanda & Julius, and Amanda Maier Meets Johannes Brahms), as well scores of her Piano Quartet and her Sonata for Violin and Piano (arranged for flute). Most of Maier’s music remains unpublished or exists only in rare 19th-century editions, many of which have been uploaded to IMSLP. We will continue to collect the music of this undeservedly forgotten composer as it becomes available.
Leah Broad devotes an episode of her podcast “Notes on Notes” to Amanda Maier, which includes video performances of Maier’s music:
https://notesonnotespodcast.com/2019/04/19/5-short-notes-on-amanda-maier/
And here is a fascinating video about the rediscovery of Maier’s Piano Trio in E flat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF7-AtKhZds
New CDs added – January 2020
New CDs for January 2020
Concertos, Orchestral, and Chamber Music
Lucas Debargue- Scarlatti: 52 Sonatas
Philip Glass – Annunciation
Amanda Maier – Amanda Maier Meets Johannes Brahms
Amanda Maier – Amanda Maier: Volume 1
Amanda Maier – Amanda Maier: Volume 2
Electronic Music
Matthew Burtner – Glacier Music
Matthew Burtner – Metasaxophone Colossus
Matthew Burtner – Portals of Distortion
Opera, Opera Excerpts and Art Songs
Philip Glass – The Fall of the House of Usher
Choral Music
Margaret Bonds – The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs
Percussion
Steve Reich – Drumming
Jazz
Champian Fulton & Cory Weeds – Dream A Little …
Johnny Griffin & Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis – Ow! Live at the Penthouse
New CDs added – November/December 2019
New CDs for November & December 2019
Concertos and Chamber Music
Ludwig van Beethoven – Complete Piano Concertos – Jan Lisiecki/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Jazz
Joyce DiDonato – Songplay
Opera, Opera Excerpts and Art Songs
Mason Bates – The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs
Tobias Picker – Fantastic Mr. Fox
Gregory Spears – Fellow Travelers
Gospel Music
Various – Sorrow Come Pass Me Around: A Survey of Rural Black Religious Music
Popular Music
Various – Beat girls espanol! : 1960s she-pop from Spain
Various – C’est Chic!: French Girl Singers of the 1960s
Various – Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll
Various – Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966-70
Various – Qat, Coffee & Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen
Folk Music
Various – The Art of Field Recording Vol. 2: Fifty Years of Traditional American Music
Various – The Year of Jubilo: 78 RPM Recordings of Songs from the Civil War
Arachnophonia: The Polar Express
Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.
All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item(s) in question or to additional relevant information from around the web.
Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Allison (class of 2022) and features a suite of music from the soundtrack to The Polar Express film released in 2004. Thanks, Allison!
In 1985, Chris Van Allsburg wrote the children’s book The Polar Express. His story was released as an animated children’s film in 2004 and was wildly successful. The soundtrack, composed by Alan Silvestri, received much well-deserved praise, including a 2006 Grammy for the song “Believe.”
Although my parents definitely read the book to me previously,my first tangible memory of The Polar Express was in first grade when my class had “Polar Express Day.” On that day we came to school in our pajamas, drank hot chocolate, and watched The Polar Express. As a result, I have always had a certain fondness for the movie.
In 2017, I played “The Polar Express Suite” with my youth orchestra as a part of our annual Christmas concert. Even with our packed program, “The Polar Express Suite” still stuck out as one of my absolute favorites. The suite highlights the main themes from the polar express soundtrack and creates the same majestic feeling the songs have in the movie. The suite is often overlooked but I find it to be just as much of a holiday classic as the movie itself.
Arachnophonia: Amy Winehouse “Back To Black”
Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from 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 student worker Lauren (class of 2023) and features Back To Black, the second and final studio album by English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. Thanks, Lauren!
Back to Black by Amy Winehouse is one of the most influential albums of all time that served to inspire the next wave of female artists such as Adele and Florence and the Machine. Amy Winehouse was an English singer with a uniquely soulful and expressive vocal repertoire. Her music is reminiscent of blues, jazz, and soul by conveying a deep and emotional mood. Not only was her music so revolutionary for its new sound, but it was also reflective of her life and personal struggles. The song “Rehab” featured on the album reflects on the protagonist’s desire to avoid going to rehab for alcohol abuse, unfortunately foreshadowing the singer’s demise. This album may be used for research in order to understand more about Winehouse’s personal emotions, or to learn how she influenced later female artists.
Personally, Amy Winehouse has been someone I’ve admired for her empowering songs and unique character. Even though she has since passed, she remains an iconic musical artist, whose music will be remembered forever. When I listen to Back to Black, I am immediately transported into another time-period and empowered by my femininity.
