by | December 26, 2013 · 1:00 am

The DeZurik Sisters

DeZurik Sisters

During the first half of the 20th century a mania for yodeling seized America, catapulting its greatest practitioners to national celebrity. Though yodelers once numbered among America’s best-known vocalists, their names have faded from public memory with the exception of Jimmie Rodgers and a few movie cowboys.

While the Arkansas native Elton Britt was billed as “The World’s Highest Yodeler”—his stardom was such that he performed at the White House for Franklin Roosevelt, and then ran for president himself in 1960—neither he nor any other vocalist of the period approached the range of sounds coaxed from the human voice by two girls from a farm just outside Royalton, Minnesota.

Among the first female country singers to appear on stage without husbands or fathers, The DeZurik Sisters (Mary Jane and Caroline, with Lorraine later replacing Mary Jane) always appeared as a duet, amazing audiences with their rapid, high-pitched yodels that often spiraled into animal sounds. In fact, so convincing were their chicken yodels that the act was renamed The Cackle Sisters when they joined the Ralston Purina Company’s Checkerboard time radio program as regulars from 1937 to 1941.

This according to “The DeZurik Sisters: Two farm girls who yodeled their way to the Grand Ole Opry” by John Biguenet (Oxford American, summer 2005; reprinted in Da Capo best music writing 2006, pp. 92–99) Below, a rare video of Caroline and Lorraine.

Related article: Jimmie Rodgers and semiotics

1 Comment

Filed under Animals, Curiosities, Humor, Popular music

Tagged as , , ,

by | December 20, 2013 · 1:00 am

Handel reference database

handel monument

Handel reference database is the largest collection of documents on the composer’s life, career, and early reception. This open-access online resource is the ongoing work of Ilias Chrissochoidis.

Currently at 800,000 words, it has fully absorbed Deutsch’s documentary biography on Handel up to the year 1726 and aspires to incorporate every available document on Handel through his Commemoration Festival of 1784.

Aside from providing free, direct, and permanent access to records on the Enlightenment’s most influential composer, it seeks to highlight the role of public benefit scholarship in today’s academia. HRD welcomes and fully acknowledges contributions from researchers working on the long 18th century (especially on Continental European music and theater) as well as collaborations that can accelerate its growth and improve its functionality.

Above, the monument to Handel at Westminster Abbey, where the composer’s remains are buried.

Related articles:

1 Comment

Filed under Baroque era, Resources

Tagged as , ,

by | December 18, 2013 · 1:00 am

Keith Richards, pirate lord

 

In 2007 Keith Richards joined the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as Edward Teague, Pirate Lord of Madagascar. He was a natural choice for the role of Jack Sparrow’s father since Johnny Depp, a longtime fan, had partially modeled his character on the legendary guitarist.

Asked whether he saw any similarity between the roles of rock star and pirate lord, Richards said “Actually, you could look at it like that. Both are ways to make a good dishonest living.”

“The music business has never been any different. It’s a pool of piranhas. You want to get in there? You better not be tasty.”

This according to “Johnny Depp & Keith Richards: Pirates of the Caribbean’s blood brothers” by David Wild (Rolling stone 1027 [31 May 2007]).

Today is Richards’s 70th birthday! Below, Edward Teague comes to life.

Comments Off on Keith Richards, pirate lord

Filed under Curiosities, Dramatic arts

Tagged as , , , ,

by | December 16, 2013 · 1:00 am

Mice at the opera

 

In an experiment, researchers performed heart transplants on mice and studied the subsequent effects of music on their alloimmune responses.

The researchers exposed different groups of the recuperating mice to three types of recorded music—a collection of works by Mozart, the album The best of Enya, and Verdi’s La traviata—and a single sound frequency as a control. After seven days their results indicated that the mice who listened to La traviata had developed superior alloimmune responses.

This according to “Auditory stimulation of opera music induced prolongation of murine cardiac allograft survival and maintained generation of regulatory CD4+CD25+ cells” by Masateru Uchiyama, et al. (Journal of cardiothoracic surgery VII/26 [2010]). Many thanks to the Improbable Research Blog for sharing this study with us!

Below, we invite you to improve your own alloimmune responses to La traviata while contemplating animated party food.

Related articles:

  •  

Comments Off on Mice at the opera

Filed under Animals, Curiosities, Opera, Science

Tagged as , ,

by | December 13, 2013 · 1:00 am

Thinking resistances

dance etc.

In 2013 Diaphanes launched the series Thinking resistances: Current perspectives on politics and communities in the arts with Dance, politics & co-immunity.

The volume explores the multiple connections between politics, community, dance, and globalization from the perspectives of dance, theater studies, history, philosophy, and sociology. Edited by Gerald Siegmund and Stefan Hölscher, the collection comprises papers presented at an international symposium with the same title that was held in 2010 at Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.

Below, an excerpt from Xavier Le Roy’s Le sacre du printemps, one of the works discussed in the book.

Comments Off on Thinking resistances

Filed under Uncategorized

by | December 11, 2013 · 1:00 am

Liszt in Paris

Liszt_1824

Liszt and his parents first arrived in Paris on 11 December 1823, 190 years ago today.

He was refused admittance to the Conservatoire because he was a foreigner, but within a few months the 12-year-old prodigy was the darling of Parisian musical circles.

After his father’s death in 1827 Liszt taught piano lessons to the titled and socially connected, and several of his female students fell in love with him; when he was thwarted in his wish to marry one of them he fell so ill with despair that the newspapers published his obituary.

Liszt cultivated friendships with Hugo and Berlioz, but when his illicit relationship with Marie d’Agoult threatened to ignite a scandal in 1835 the couple eloped to Switzerland. Although he made many subsequent trips to France to perform, Liszt never lived there again.

This according to “Liszt in France” by Julien Tiersot (The musical quarterly XXII/3 [July 1936] pp. 255–361).

Above, Liszt in 1824, not long after he moved to Paris (click to enlarge). Below, his variations on a theme by Paganini from 1831, two years before his relationship with d’Agoult began.

Related articles:

 

 

 

1 Comment

Filed under Romantic era

Tagged as , ,

by | December 8, 2013 · 1:00 am

Celebrating Jim Morrison

 

After the American rock star and poet Jim Morrison’s death in 1971 fans used increasingly transgressive means to commemorate him at his grave at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris.

Before crowd-control barriers and permanent police surveillance were put in place in 2004, the site abounded in illegal drug use and drunkenness as a way to celebrate and honor Morrison’s commitment to living life on the edge. Many fans describe him as a shaman.

Direct body contact with the site was important for some, with women lying naked and couples engaging in sexual sessions on the grave.

Now many of these celebrations of the senses have moved to a café next to the cemetery, and the gravesite is visited only for silent contemplation.

This according to “The performance of a cult of the senses: A feast of fans at Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris” by Peter Jan Margry (Traditiones: Zbornik Inštituta za Slovensko Narodopisje/Acta Instituti Ethnographiae Slovenorum XXXVI/1 [2007] pp. 141–152).

Today would have been Morrison’s 70th birthday! Below, The Doors’ iconic Light my fire prefaced by one of Morrison’s poems, live in 1968; Morrison prepares to resume singing around 8:40.

 

2 Comments

Filed under Popular music

Tagged as , , , ,

by | December 6, 2013 · 1:00 am

Computational ethnomusicology

Block diagram

The June 2013 issue of Journal of new music research (XLII/2) is a special issue devoted to computational ethnomusicology.

The editors, Emilia Gómez, Perfecto Herrera, and Francisco Gómez-Martin, explain that the term computational ethnomusicology is over 30 years old, but it has recently been redefined as “the design, development, and usage of computer tools that have the potential to assist in ethnomusicological research.”

Above, a diagram of the Tarsos platform from “Tarsos, a modular platform for precise pitch analysis of Western and non-Western music” by Joren Six, Olmo Cornelis, and Marc Leman (pp. 113–29). Below, a vintage computer cover of The house of the rising sun.

1 Comment

Filed under Ethnomusicology, Science

Tagged as

by | December 4, 2013 · 1:00 am

C. Saraswati and harikathā

C. Saraswati

C. Saraswati Bai (1874–1974) began studying Karnatak music at the age of 6, and by the time she was 9 her exceptional talent was so evident that the harikathā guru Tiruvaiyaru Krishnachar took her under his wing.

By the age of 11 she was gaining local notoriety, and as it became clear that she was contemplating a professional career the established performers of this male-dominated genre moved to undermine her, effectively blackmailing performance venues into refusing to engage her. Saraswati persevered, and public support for her grew; at last, those who had sought to squelch her career relented and tried to make amends.

In early 1911 she embarked on a highly successful tour of India and Sri Lanka, and by the age of 22 she had become one of the most acclaimed harikathā performers of the time.

From 1913 through the 1930s Saraswati traveled almost continually, performing standing up for six to seven hours in a different town each night. She recorded nine successful records for Odeon, and often performed on the radio; she was also in great demand for performances at weddings. At the height of her career she earned 2000 rupees each night, more than any other harikathā performer at that time.

From the 1940s until the early 1960s Saraswati performed less and less, due partly to a decline in audiences with the advent of sound films, and partly to the intense physical demands of traveling and performing. She took a keen interest in developing cultural organizations, and was an ardent supporter of Gandhi.

This according to “C. Saraswati Bai” by Sriram Venkatakrishnan (writing as Sriram V; Sruti 262 [July 2006] pp. 21–31 and 263 [August 2006] pp. 17–38). Below, one of her Odeon recordings.

Comments Off on C. Saraswati and harikathā

Filed under Asia, Dramatic arts

Tagged as , ,

by | December 2, 2013 · 1:00 am

Callas and Epidaurus

Epidaurus Callas

When Maria Callas returned to Greece to inaugurate the 1957 Athens Festival her demand for an unusually high fee created much antagonism, and she vowed that she would not perform in the country again.

However, in 1959 Κostis Bastias (1901–72) took charge of the administration of the Ethnikī Lyrikī Skīnī (Greek National Theater) and invited Callas to star in an opera in the ancient theater of Epidaurus. Since its opening in 1954, the Epidaurus Festival had only included performances of ancient Greek dramas by Ethnikī Lyrikī Skīnī; performances by other troupes were not allowed.

Finally, Callas consented to present Bellini’s Norma at the festival in 1960, and decided to donate her fee to a scholarship foundation. The performance was a resounding success, and she returned to Epidaurus a year later to present Cherubini’s Médée, further eroding Ethnikī Lyrikī Skīnī’s monopoly.

This according to “Callas: The conflict for Epidaurus” by Georgia Kondyli (Hellenic journal of music, education and culture III/1 [2010; open access]).

Today is Callas’s 90th birthday! Above, a Greek stamp commemorates her Norma at Epidaurus; below, a slide show includes photographs from the Epidaurus production of Médée.

1 Comment

Filed under Opera

Tagged as , , , , , ,