Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Presidential Music Lincoln Washington & More

    Presidential Music Lincoln Washington & More

    I was thinking of ol’ Abe Lincoln, who was known to walk 20 miles through all weather to borrow and return books, as I trudged from the parking lot this morning with temperatures in the mid-teens. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the layout of the Princeton University campus, the parking lot is not close. But Abe would have done it, uphill through a raging snow storm, in order to enrich your day with music about the presidents.

    Today is Lincoln’s birthday (born 1809). We’ll honor our 16th president, with Lincoln-inspired music by George Frederick McKay, David Diamond, Robert Russell Bennett, Roy Harris and John Williams, among others. Since Monday is a federal holiday established to honor the birth of George Washington (in 1732), we’ll have works inspired by him, as well, composed by Virgil Thomson, Seymour Bernstein and John Lampkin, again among others.

    In addition, we’ll have music written for or inspired by some of our other presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Chester A. Arthur. As time allows, we may also hear some 19th century campaign songs.

    It will be like hurling silver dollar after silver dollar across the Potomac this morning, from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I cannot tell a lie, on Classic Ross Amico.

    #AbrahamLincoln

  • Lincoln & Washington: Presidential Music on WPRB

    Lincoln & Washington: Presidential Music on WPRB

    “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

    Taking to heart the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, I’ll attempt to break with tradition by actually planning in advance my radio show for tomorrow on WPRB.

    February 12 is Lincoln’s birthday. We will honor our 16th president and look ahead to the three-day weekend with music inspired by Lincoln and also George Washington (whose birthday is February 22), for whom, after all, the holiday, known in the colloquial as Presidents Day, was coined.

    A conflict arises in that while combing my collection I’ve also come across a number of interesting pieces written for other presidents, such as JFK, Nixon, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Chester A. Arthur. Do I include them, or do I follow a strict Lincoln-Washington regimen? Decisions, decisions. A house divided against itself cannot plan!

    If it comes down to an Iowa-style coin toss, one thing is certain: you can still count on plenty of presidential music, with works like George Antheil’s “McKonkey’s Ferry (Washington in Trenton),” Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 6 “Gettysburg,” Virgil Thomson’s “Parson Weems and the Cherry Tree,” John Lampkin’s “George Washington Slept Here,” Paul Turok’s “Lincoln and Liberty,” and selections from John Williams’ score for the Steven Spielberg film, “Lincoln.”

    We’ll be doing our best to get you in the mood for the white sales, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time, on Classic Ross Amico.

    To tide you over, here are a couple of links to extremely rare symphonies inspired by Lincoln, neither of which, to my knowledge, has ever received a commercial recording:

    Daniel Gregory Mason’ Symphony No. 3 “Lincoln” (1936)

    Jaromir Weinberger’s “Lincoln Symphony” (1941)

    Yes, that’s the same Weinberger who composed “Schwanda the Bagpiper!”

    #AbrahamLincoln

  • Revelry’s Desperate Dance Before Lent

    Revelry’s Desperate Dance Before Lent

    I know I posted this clip before, but to me it so perfectly encapsulates the pitiful desperation of revelry, the sense of dancing around the mouth of the grave that characterizes so many “festive” occasions – New Year’s, Mardi Gras, bachelor parties, Spring Break, Saturday night – and the encroaching desolation of the day after. We drink, we laugh, we dance, and then we stagger home like Alberto Sordi, lashed to a papier-mâché head.

    Have a great Lent, everybody!

  • Remembering Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Legend

    Remembering Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Legend

    Poor Jerry Goldsmith. He wrote some of the great film scores of his time, including those for “The Sand Pebbles” (1966), “The Blue Max” (1966), “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967), “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Patton” (1970), “Papillon” (1973), “Chinatown” (1974), “The Wind and the Lion” (1975), “MacArthur” (1977), “The Boys from Brazil” (1978), “The Great Train Robbery” (1979), “Alien” (1979, butchered in the sound editing), and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).

    For television, he wrote for “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Waltons.”

    By the 1980s, the films began to get weaker. It seemed like Goldsmith was always getting tossed the projects John Williams passed on, or cheap knockoffs of Williams’ successes. By his final decade, he was stuck writing for such garbage as “The Mummy” (1999), “The Haunting” (1999), and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” (2003). A notable exception was “L.A. Confidential” (1997), but rarely were his later projects up to his talent.

    Goldsmith had a reputation for being able to compose at white heat, so he was frequently called upon to write replacement scores for films like “The River Wild” (1994), “Air Force One” (1997) and “The 13th Warrior” (1999). He composed and recorded the score to “Chinatown,” one of the best of the 1970s, in only ten days.

    Incredibly, he was honored with only a single Academy Award, for his influential score to “The Omen” (1976). Goldsmith died in 2004, at the age of 75. If he were to come back today, he would mop the joint with all the Hans Zimmer clones of the world.

    Happy birthday, Jerry Goldsmith. I sure does miss you.

    #JerryGoldsmith

    The Man from U.N.C.L.E.:

    Planet of the Apes:

    Patton:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdEy4GneZfw

    Chinatown:

    The Wind and the Lion:

    The Omen (perfect for Lent):

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture:

  • Fasnacht Day Memories Grandmother’s Recipe

    Fasnacht Day Memories Grandmother’s Recipe

    Fasnacht Day! That happy day when I’d blow into the house, an oblivious boy, and be arrested by the smell of freshly made doughnuts. I never understood when it would happen, or its significance. All I knew is that I’d come home one day to find my grandmother frying the most heavenly treats.

    Why fasnacht? When I asked, my grandmother didn’t know. I suppose it’s something she did by rote. But go ahead and look it up on the internet. A fasnacht is a fried doughnut served up on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday, if you prefer), on the eve of Lent. I guess traditionally it was a way to clear out all the tasties that, as a good Christian, you’re not supposed to eat again until Easter. Be that as it may, I would think any good done by the fast would be offset by the indulgence of so much fried lard up front.

    I miss those doughnuts. Now THOSE were doughnuts. The closest I’ve been able to find out in the real world are the Italian zeppoli. Not quite the same – and apparently the zeppoli can vary – but they have a similar, unhealthy, fried, powdered sugary goodness. If you find a light and puffy zeppola, it would bear little resemblance to my grandmother’s fasnachts, which were always quite cakey.

    My grandmother was an undistinguished cook, but boy could she make fasnachts.

    I know I’m mixing traditions, but “Laissez les bon temps roulez!”

    “Mardi Gras” by American composer Edward Joseph Collins:

    Roman Carnival antics by Giovanni Croce:

    PHOTO: You’ll find fasnachts in all varieties, but these best resemble my grandmother’s recipe.

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