Category Archives: Food
Schoenberg’s birthday bash
Today, on Arnold Schoenberg’s birthday (13 September 1874), let’s eavesdrop on his 60th birthday party in Los Angeles, as recalled by his student Dika Newlin: “In about an hour after we arrived, the eating and drinking began. There was coffee … Continue reading
Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Food
Synesthesia with wine
In an experiment, 250 adults were offered a glass of wine in return for answering a few questions about its taste. After clearing their palates, each received a glass of either cabernet sauvignon or chardonnay and was taken to one … Continue reading
Verdi’s gastromusicology
In opera, eating and drinking function largely as they do in society—they define social relationships. The antisocial act of refusing to share food or drink with merry people carries a negative connotation and implies an unfortunate result. Further gastromusicological laws may … Continue reading
Filed under Curiosities, Food, Opera, Romantic era
The java jive
The universal availability and divergent imagery of coffee in people’s lives has been expressed in popular music more often than many of us realize. “You’re the cream in my coffee: A discography of java jive” by B. Lee Cooper and William … Continue reading
Filed under Food, Popular music, Resources
Erste Wiener Gemüseorchester
The Erste Wiener Gemüseorchester (also known as the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra), performs on instruments made entirely out of fresh vegetables: cukeophones, radish-marimbas, carrot flutes, pumpkin basses, leek violins, and so on. The instruments are all made from scratch one hour … Continue reading
Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Food, Instruments
Bees at the Opéra
Besides his training as a graphic artist, Jean Paucton, the prop man at the Palais Garnier in Paris, studied beekeeping at the Jardin du Luxemboug. In the mid-1980s he ordered his first hive, which was delivered to him at the … Continue reading
Filed under Animals, Architecture, Curiosities, Dramatic arts, Food, Nature, Science
Wine for the organist
The organ built by Gebrüder Oberlinger Orgelbau in 1997 for St. Martin in Cochem includes an innovative stop called Riesling 2fach. Pulling the stop opens a small cabinet holding two bottles of Riesling wine. This according to “Neue Orgel in … Continue reading
Filed under Architecture, Food, Instruments
Rāgs and recipes
In “Why Hindustani musicians are good cooks: Analogies between music and food in North India” (Asian music XXV/1–2 (1993–94), pp. 69–80), Adrian McNeil notes that culinary topics are frequent—sometimes even favorite—subjects of conversation among Hindustani musicians, and that a notable … Continue reading
Filed under Asia, Curiosities, Ethnomusicology, Food, Theory, World music
Dining with RILM
In 2004 the diversity among the staff at RILM’s International Center inspired the idea of compiling a cookbook, and the following year we quietly published Dining with RILM in a limited edition. In her preface, Tina Frühauf, the book’s Editor-in-Chief, … Continue reading
Filed under Food, From the archives, RILM
