About Popular Music

Since hit singles became the goal of recording companies in the 1950's, frequent radio play was the maian route to popularity. In Aug. 4, 1958, Billboard magazine began to list the most popular 100 tunes in the US based on sales and plays on jukeboxes and the radio. The first No. 1 it was Ricky Nelson’s "Poor Little Fool." As recorded popular music emerged, song writers and arrangers became the new composers who dominated radio play. Geoff Mayfield recalled: “If you found only one easy listening song in a college student's music library during the early '60s, it would have been Percy Faith's rendition of "Theme from 'A Summer Place.'" With a melody carried by Faith's orchestra string section, the instrumental entered the Hot 100 at No. 96 in the Jan. 16, 1960, issue and rose to No. Some of the hit makers became rich and famous but less lucky song writers and musicians remained poor. Recording companies grew richer, bigger and more autocratic.

For those of us who value the tradition of good melodies, meaningful lyrics and skilled singers who could really sing, the search for good 21st century tunes continues.

Holden recalled the “the golden age of live entertainment that faded with the incursions of rock ’n’ roll and television. From the late 1940s through the mid-’60s there were several tiers of live entertainment in New York: glamorous hotel supper clubs like the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel, and the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria, high-end nightclubs like the Blue Angel, smaller hole-in-the-wall Midtown jazz clubs, and smaller piano bars scattered through Manhattan where one could drop in for the price of a drink. As the nightclub world has shrunk, that kind of informality is largely a thing of the past is there is a young generation to carry on the tradition? The few younger singers, such as Harry Connick, Diana Krall, and Michael Bublé, passed through cabaret and jazz clubs on their way to the national spotlight. The concept of cabaret is only one of many in a genre that also shades into Broadway, traditional jazz, rock and even world music. Because a cabaret is the best place for a theatrically trained Broadway performer to step out of a role, it is a natural adjunct to the musical theater… instrumental jazz has established almost no footing in cabaret, where a charismatic personality matters as much as musical talent. The peak cabaret experience is a three-way relationship among singer, song (often a standard) and audience in which performers pour their life experiences in thematic shows using the American songbook as a platform; songs are stations in an autobiographical journey shared with the listener."

Poplar songs cross genre boundaries. The best idea is to separate the songs from rock and roll, country, jazz, blues, folk and consider their popularity and merit. good songs have pleasing melodies. meaningful lyrics and are presented by singers and musician as well-crafted, good-recordings. A topic often discussed among musicians who have not yet made the big time is what are the ingredients of hit songs? The are many ideas. One idea, for sure, is that a lot of people must like the tune. Liking a tune requires hearing the tune often, so that it becomes as familiar as brushing your teeth. Since hit singles became the goal of recording companies in the 1950's, frequent radio play was the route to popularity. The competition for radio play led to big business control of the airways, shady deals and some criminal involvement. More recently music videos have taken over and songs presented on You Tube and other video streaming services get the most attention. See Composing Hit Songs.

I have chosen some of my favorites that I have recorded and include some You Tube performances by the original artists { best enjoyed with full screen, large monitor and good headphones or speakers).

Reply  

Digital Bach Counterpoint for Genius

Cantatas Renewed as Counterpoint for Genius

I discovered that Bach's Cantatas are a gold mine of melodies and a surprising variety of styles, contrapuntal techniques and other delights. I have examined many of his Cantata scores and gradually selected episodes that I could transcribe and produce using my collection of sampled instruments and multitrack recording methods of performing. I am in no hurry and look forward to more years of pleasurable hours creating unique Bach performances.

My Counterpoint for Genius series is a collection of four albums that evolved over several years though experimentation with a number of transcriptions of Bach pieces, many from the religious Cantatas, mixed with different voicing and, different tempos and transpositions. Mozart has received the most attention as the composer of smart music. Bach excels. I realized that many of the Bach pieces I recorded were among the best examples of contrapuntal composition and that counterpoint was the perfect brain exercise

The Cantatas have been separated into Sacred and Secular groups. Here is an overview: "Bach's religious cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Some of them are only for a solo singer; some are single choruses; some are for orchestras, some only a few instruments are scored. A very common format, however, includes a large opening chorus followed by one or more recitative-aria pairs for soloists (or duets), and a concluding chorale. The recitative is part of the corresponding Bible reading for the week and the aria is a contemporary reflection on it. The melody of the concluding chorale often appears as a cantus firmus in the opening movement."

Bach wrote a number of secular cantatas, usually for civic events such as council inaugurations. These also include wedding cantatas, the Peasant Cantata and the Coffee Cantata. A Bach Cantata was usually written for a small orchestra that consisted of violins, viola, cello and bass violin, a harpsichord, up to four singers, trumpets, oboe, tympani, and often, an organ continuo. Bach wrote for the musicians he had available to perform, often re-voicing parts as required. In addition to counterpoint, he harmonized using triads and octave duplications. Some of his orchestration duplicates parts probably to increase volume or to compensate for weak performers.

My approach to a Bach score is to find the really interesting melodies and counterpoint first and assign these parts to the new instruments in my orchestra. I omit many parts that seem distracting or non-essential. Some of the string parts are fast, articulated passages that can become blurred or tedious. I reassign these passages to a variety of keyboards that perform the fast notes with greater precision. I delight (as Glen Gould did ) in giving each note individual attention by fine tuning the articulation and duration during editing. Compared with the rich sounds of a grand piano or a well formed electronic piano, the harpsichord has a thin sound, cannot sustain notes and has little resonance.

Trumpets in Bach's time were not fully chromatic, had limited range and were used mostly for their open notes. I used my rich sounding flugelhorn simulation with a full chromatic range to replace the soprano and alto parts and sometimes the first violin's parts that contain melody and/or distinct counterpoint. The bass parts are played by a variety of instruments especially a plucked acoustic bass, bass guitars, and synthesized instruments.

Reply  

Jazz 21st Centerury

Jazz

From The Sound of Music by Stephen Gislason

"I love that word ‘jazz,’ man. Jazz is a beautiful word. I connect jazz not with what’s happening today in America so much as when I was young and listened to Ellington, Miles Davis, Bird, Dizzy Gillespie: how beautiful music was then and how exciting music was then. That’s what I connect myself with.” Joe Zawinul

I have eclectic musical interests, but the rhythms, ideas and complexity of jazz dominates my music. Some will say that jazz is performance music, that demands novel improvisations from skilled performers. Others will emphasis jazz traditions and perform standards that recall the history of jazz. Since I am studio musician, I enjoy the privilege of private improvisations, thoughtful reflection on the structure and meaning of jazz forms and ample opportunity to score, edit and refine jazz performances before they become a public spectacle. The passionate energy of some jazz pieces has been, for me, healing music supplying energy that pushed and pulled me through hard times.

Jazz became intellectual music but originated as dance music played by black musicians in New Orleans. Jass referred to sex and the rhythmic dances in the black community were sensual and erotic. Original jazz was band music for dancing, street parades and funerals. Jazz bands featured brass instruments, drums, and woodwinds. The favored brass were coronets and trombones. Pianos, guitars and banjos added ethnic flavors to the Creole bands who played rhythmic, complex arrangements with brief improvisatory breaks.

The evolution of jazz is fascinating and complex. The coronet was replaced by by the trumpet, saxophones became more important than clarinets, bass fiddles became a standard instrument, and electric guitars eventually replaced acoustic. The drum kit with kick drum, snare, tom, toms and cymbals also became a standard feature of jazz ensembles. In the 30's big bands dominated dance halls and celebrated band leaders and soloists such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong became celebrities. Big bands eventfully shrunk to small bands. Soloists with virtuoso skills became the heroes of jazz. Band musicians would meet in after hours clubs to jam.

Interesting rhythms and improvisation were two essential elements of jazz. Innovations appeared quickly and were often resisted by more traditional musicians and audiences. Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie invented modern jazz, beginning in the 1940's. Their "bebop" rhythms, sophisticated arrangements and "wild" improvisations inspired the best of the new jazz players. Traditional jazz players scorned the innovators.

Jazz fusion describes the merging of progressive jazz formats with a wide variety other musical styles including funk, rock, R&B, electronic, Latin and world music. Miles Davis moved his jazz expressions through cool jazz, bop, and modal jazz. The 1968 album “Miles in the Sky” introduced Herbie Hancock playing electric piano and Carter playing an electric bass guitar. In 1969, electronic instruments dominated the next album “In a Silent Way”, an innovative fusion album.

The musicians who played with Miles often continued to develop fusions styles. 1970’s fusion bands originated with Miles Davis alumni: Tony Williams Lifetime, Weather Report, McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Corea's Return to Forever, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters band. Herbie Hancock was one of the first jazz keyboardists to use synthesizers. Funk jazz emerged in his albums, Head Hunters 1973 and Thrust in 1974.

Weather Report, featuring Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter developed "world music fusion jazz." Jaco Pastorius, the electric bass player, went on to great fame and a tragic death in 1987. In 2006, Pastorius was voted "The Greatest Bass Player Who Has Ever Lived" by reader submissions in Bass Guitar Magazine. Zawinul, a jazz keyboardist and composer used synthesizers and retired to his studio to record complete compositions on his own .

Reply  

Cabaret & American Songbook

For those of us who value the tradition of good melodies, meaningful lyrics and skilled singers who could really sing, the search for good 21st century tunes continues. I recall going to an open house in a new, expensive apartment complex in Vancouver a few years ago. The showcase apartment was the ultimate in urban sophistication with muted grey tones, stainless steel appliances; great view of the city and on the living room wall was a flat LCD panel with Diana Krall singing and playing cabaret style. Her soothing voice and gentle jazz accompaniment came from hidden speakers in pure DVD hi-fidelity. If you had any doubts that the apartment represented ultimate sophistication, Diana's music removed them.

This is cabaret music, century 21. Holden recalled the “the golden age of live entertainment that faded with the incursions of rock ’n’ roll and television. From the late 1940s through the mid-’60s there were several tiers of live entertainment in New York: glamorous hotel supper clubs like the Persian Room at the Plaza Hotel, and the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria, high-end nightclubs like the Blue Angel, smaller hole-in-the-wall Midtown jazz clubs, and smaller piano bars scattered through Manhattan where one could drop in for the price of a drink. As the nightclub world has shrunk, that kind of informality is largely a thing of the past is there is a young generation to carry on the tradition? The few younger singers, such as Harry Connick, Diana Krall, and Michael Bublé, passed through cabaret and jazz clubs on their way to the national spotlight. The concept of cabaret is only one of many in a genre that also shades into Broadway, traditional jazz, rock and even world music. Because a cabaret is the best place for a theatrically trained Broadway performer to step out of a role, it is a natural adjunct to the musical theater… instrumental jazz has established almost no footing in cabaret, where a charismatic personality matters as much as musical talent. The peak cabaret experience is a three-way relationship among singer, song (often a standard) and audience in which performers pour their life experiences in thematic shows using the American songbook as a platform; songs are stations in an autobiographical journey shared with the listener."

Reply  

Art of the Fugue J.S. Bach

Art of the Fugue 2010 JS Bach revisited Stephen Gislason arranger and performer on synthesizers. The Art of the Fugue is a collection of Johann Sebastian Bach' last compositions. His son, Carl, published the work in 1751, still incomplete. One theme is developed through contrapuntal variations. Much speculation and controversy has arisen as musicologists analyzed the pieces. The last fugue 14 has been of special interest as presumably the last music that Bach wrote and because his hand written score is unfinished at bar 239. His son Carl wrote on the score:" At the point where the composer introduces the name BACH (B♭-A-C-B♮) in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died." Stephen wrote: "Glenn Gould recorded his versions of the Fugues (piano and organ) and I have enjoyed and followed his approach to studio recording -- the essence of which is creativity and minute attention to detail. While both Bach and Gould receive a lot of attention from fans and scholars with attendant arguments, my approach is (with due reverence) to follow my own instincts and preferences and give free reign to my creativity. I wanted to achieve a version of the Art of the Fugue that is different from previous versions. I have spent over 2 years developing my arrangements and could issue several albums with quite divergent interpretations, I believe I have reached an deep understanding with Bach and Gould, that these pieces have an infinite quality that cannot be contained in any individual's opinion of them. "

Reply  

Classical Consort Recordings of JS Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the great masters of music, hardly needs and introduction. I first learned to play his simple pieces on the piano when I was five years old. Bach's wives had a total of 20 children; he wrote music to teach his own children. Three of his sons became well known composers. Bach himself  was virtuoso and improviser on the organ and the harpsichord; he wrote preludes, concertos and chamber music for keyboards that allowed him to improvise the solo parts. He is best know for his fugues which wove melodic themes through four voices- soprano, alto, tenor, baritone. His contrapuntal ingenuity continues to be admired by contemporary musicians and composers. Bach was influenced by Handel and Vivaldi. Händel was born in 1685, the same year as JS Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. Bach eventually complimented Handel and his music saying that Handel was "the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach." Mozart admired Bach's genius. Beethoven said that JS Bach was "the master of us all". Stephen wrote: "As an adult, I attempted to play many of pieces in the Well-Tempered Clavier. My hero at the time was Glenn Gould who recorded the entire series and the Goldberg Variations with widely acknowledged virtuosity. The coordination of left and right hand and arm movements is important to keyboard skills. Even with sustained practice, the two hands want to do similar things or perform linked movements. I spent years, for example, trying to achieve right and left hand separation as I played the piano. I was inspired Gould, who achieved remarkable independence of his left and right hands. In fact, he seemed to achieve complete independence for each finger of each hand. If you listen closely, you can hear him play individual notes with individual attention. Gould played Bach and Bach’s preludes and fugues that were based on four voices that sang through the fingers of both hands. An alto voice, for example, would start in the left hand, pass to the right and back to the left. Less skilled pianists use a coordinated hand strategy and the continuity of a single voice is audibly interrupted as it passes from hand to hand. Of course, Gould was a musical genius with a prodigious memory. He learned musical scores away from the piano; playing the piece followed memorizing and rehearsing it in his mind. Some of Bach’s pieces became contemporary hits: for example, by the Swingle Singers' (Air on the G string, Wachet Auf chorale prelude) and Wendy Carlos' 1968 album, Switched-On Bach, created with a Moog synthesizer. I specially enjoyed the Carlos arrangements and was inspired to learn about synthesizers. The distinct timbres of the Moog synthesizer voices made the four voices in preludes and fugues stand out clearly. " Persona Classical Ensemble Recordings of JS Bach are edited and arranged for synthesizer by Stephen Gislason and recorded at Persona Digital Studio The Art of the Fugue (Contrapuncti 1 to 12 soon to released as an album) Air on the G String Cantata 208 Cantata 207-2 Cantata 207-9 Cantata 202 (final aria, recitative and Gavotte) Aria from the Christmas Oratorio Invention in A minor Prelude D major Prelude and Fugue #1 from the Well Tempered Clavier W4achet Auf (choral prelude) JS Bach’s works were indexed by Schmeider in 1950 as Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue, BMV). BWV 1–224 are cantatas, BWV 225–249 the large-scale choral works, BWV 250–524 chorales and sacred songs, BWV 525–748 organ works, BWV 772–994 other keyboard works, BWV 995–1000 lute music, BWV 1001–40 chamber music, BWV 1041–71 orchestral music, and BWV 1072–1126 canons and fugues.

Reply  

Classical Music

Music comes in all shapes and sizes. Some music is spontaneous and easy to make. A folk singer may be quite charming, strumming simple chords on a guitar, singing a plain song in a spontaneous and undisciplined manner. Other music requires years of disciplined study and practice and involves complex concepts and notation systems. Classical music originated in Europe as an art form that required, talent, study and years of disciplined practice to achieve levels of performance required by classical composers. The great composers are still considered to be extraordinary humans, some geniuses, whose works are worth of study, reverence and repeated performance by symphony orchestras in most large cities. University music departments teach classical music and develop the advanced skills in students who will play in symphony orchestras. Classical music began as entertainment for rich aristocrats and a showcase feature of rich churches who could afford to support composers and musicians as full time employees. In the smaller venues of entertainment rooms in the homes of the wealthy, small chamber ensembles played pieces composed specifically for those audiences. Some pieces were for listening, others for dancing, and others as background music, part of the décor. Virtuoso performers played pieces designed to impress audiences with their technical skills. Some of the great composers were also skilled performers who in the tradition of jazz performers improvised in these small gathers and competed with each other. Mozart was the childhood virtuoso and great improviser who travelled Europe with his father and sister impressing audiences. Beethoven took advantage of improvements in instrument construction that allowed players to develop more virtuoso techniques. Beethoven is credited with the kind of progression of musical innovation that we recognize in the evolution of jazz in the 20th century.  Stravinsky referred to his last quartets, as "this absolutely contemporary piece of music that will be contemporary forever." Among Beethoven’s innovations are complex syncopations and cross-rhythms; synchronized runs of sixteenth, thirty-second, and sixty-fourth notes; and sudden modulations requiring special attention to intonation.”

Reply  

Persona Classical Consort Plays Bach and Mozart

The Persona Classical Consort focuses on the music of JS Bach and Amadeus Mozart. Stephen Gislason edits and arranges pieces that are developed in the studio using synthesizer voices and multitrack recording. In previous years, some of Bach’s pieces became contemporary hits: for example, by the Swingle Singers' (Air on the G string, Wachet Auf chorale prelude) and Wendy Carlos' 1968 album, Switched-On Bach, created with a Moog synthesizer. Stephen recalls " I enjoyed the Carlos arrangements and was inspired to learn about synthesizers. The distinct timbres of the Moog synthesizer voices made the four voices in preludes and fugues stand out clearly. I have edited and rearranged Bach's pieces with new voicing, new intonations seeking the clarity of voice definition I heard in "Switched on Bach." I like to imagine the if Bach were alive, he would enjoy this novel play on his musical ideas."

Reply