I just discovered a classical music blog called On an Overgrown Path. This entry tells a story that should be of general interest, even if you don't like classical.
On March 28, 1945, the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic gave the final concert of the Nazi period, even as the Russians bombarded the city. The program included (but of course!) the finale from Die Götterdämmerung, the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 -- a piece blessedly free of nationalistic associations. Bruckner was a deeply religious man (compared to him, the Pope was only sort of Catholic), and his Fourth ends with a transcendent death-bed vision of the heavens opening.
At the end of the concert, angelic children from the Hitler Youth handed cyanide pills to members of the audience!
So what would you choose as the last music you'll ever hear?
The Bruckner Fourth works for me. (The Celibidache performance on EMI is like no other; the final minutes bring tears to my eyes every damn time.) Either that, or the Beatles' final medley. Every time I hear Golden Slumbers I warble it absentmindedly for the rest of the day, showing no mercy to any unlucky soul with whom I may be sharing quarters.
As you chew on your holiday turkey, you may want to consider the jolly conundrum I've posed above. Visiting family members may even have you asking: "So where's my cyanide pill?"
10 comments:
Great blog, Joseph! The Beatles, eh? Let me quote dr. elsewhere: "You are AMAZING!"
As the last music I'll ever hear, I'll choose any Beatles album.
It's arguable whether the world is a better place because of FDR, or Churchill, or Gandhi. But it's not arguable that it's a better place because of The Beatles.
Either any Beatles album or Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic's Symphonic Dances from his "West Side Story", and let the CD (Sony SMK 46701) play out to include Mahler's 4th movement from his 5th Symphony.
"Golden Slumbers" has a cool history, especially if you read between the lines. On the Anthology DVD, both Georges sandbag Sir Paul in the studio when Martin fades up the song. Paul says, "Ah, Golden Sloombehs", and George Harrison reminds everyone that Paul plagiarized, but not in those words, the lyrics, to which Paul dissembles some stuff about his dad's sheet music. Then George Martin asks, "Who was playing bass?" At that point, Sir Paul knows something's up. We learn that this track has Paul's vocal and his piano, and Paul doesn't play bass on any of the overdub tracks. Both Georges are gleaming at this point. All the guys talk about the 5-string bass that John and George sometimes played, and they conclude it was probably George on the bass. Why is this important? Did The Beatles decide to call it quits because Paul's ego had got out of control after "We Can Work It Out"? Did George have good reason to feel under-appreciated?
When the 1969 Playboy Jazz & Pop Poll came out, Paul won for bass. But maybe it was George's bass that got the votes? "Abbey Road" (1969) was the first recording that used the new 8-track technology, making the album the purist-sounding and best-mixed recording yet. Everyone could 'hear' everything in the stereo mix, and the bass could be heard (and felt) up front.
(Footnote: Our Boys had always agonized/agonised over the 'weak' bass that EMI's engineers gave them, compared to what Motown was putting out. EMI explained that British record buyers didn't have the equipment to reproduce that kind of recording -- the stylus would jump the groove. It was The Beatles, whose unparalleled fame and revenue drove the technology to change.)
It's a fun idea for today's table-gobble, maybe I'll bring it up, but only if someone else mentions something about music, which is doubtful. I'm the only one in my family who likes The Beatles, I mean, I love The Beatles, but no one in the family even likes them, and they're old/young enough. (My mother liked them, but she's no longer with us.) Also, I'm the only one who doesn't eat animal parts.
H, whenever someone mentions Golden Sloombehs in my presence, I usually launch into my Ringo Starr impersonation: "They didn't let me do a solo until the last fooking song, and I wasn't exactly Boody Rich, now, was I?"
Yeah, I know. Totally unfair. It didn't really happen that way. On the other hand, that bit made my ladyfriend giggle the first six times she heard it, and that's what matters.
For all that, Ringo remains quite welcome in my dying ears, while "Boody" certainly is NOT. (There's a personal story there which I may one day tell.)
I don't know who played bass on that track, but I do think that George Martin was the Fifth Beatle, and sometimes I think he was the First. He certainly knew about the line separating sentiment from schmaltz, unlike some accused murderers I could name.
The famous adagio from Mahler's Fifth is definitely a ode to That Which Was, but it should always be seen as a prelude to the final movement, a salute to The New. Solti felt that the adagio was a prophecy of the end of Mahler's society -- the elegant world seen in "The Illusionist," destroyed by the First War. The final movement depicts the erection of a great bustling polyglot democracy -- a friend once told me that he couldn't hear that last "Ode to Life" chorale without imagining fast-motion footage of skyscrapers and bridges being built. Taken together, the message is clear: We are replaceable. All ends; all is reborn.
When it comes to Bernstein-does-Mahler, I would choose the 8th. The performance in Vienna captured on video. I could die a happy man after hearing it one last time.
"After The Rain", by John Coltrane. "Nightingale", by Norah Jones. "Stairway", by Laura Allan. "All My Tears", done by Emmylou Harris.
But there are a lot of them, really. For that matter, when I'm really swept up in a piece of music, it is the last music I'll ever hear...
I've got over five thousand songs on my iPod and when I go, I'll have it in my will that the headphone will be placed on my corpse and then I can finally hear all the songs. I just need a battery that will last a week!
At Last -- Etta James.
I would take Scriabin's Poem Of Ecstacy especially the one conducted by Valery Gergiev and the Kirov [dig the way that cat turns Stravinsky into punk rock!!]. That, or maybe James Brown's version on Prison of Love... While Joe, i do hope you like my old band's music, it might be too much before dying...
"Sympathy for the Devil" because I'll probably be meeting him shortly.
ANYTHING by Frank Zappa.
There are 4 albums/CDs/whatever that come immediatly to mind:
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
Veedon Fleece - Van Morrison
The Last Temptation of Christ Soundtrack - Peter Gabriel
Grace - Jeff Buckley
There are likely many more, but that will have to do should I die today.
Excellent choices!
I've always loved the "Last Temptation" soundtrack, although I don't own it. I'll have to acquire it.
Who knows? Maybe that will be the last thing I hear...
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